Post 1:

1/ Your description of at least three (3) things you learned.

Some of the things that I have learned from this course are the principles of respondent superior (vicarious liability), independent contractor status, and corporate liability.

The principle of respondent superior makes an employer partly liable to for the work-related wrongdoing of its employee. A healthcare institution has the duty of requiring its employees to utilize a reasonable level of care that is the same as that practiced by other institutions within the same industry and communities (Showalter). In this regard, a healthcare institution can be held liable for the tort that its employee has committed within its institution even though the healthcare institution may not be directly at fault based on the qui facit per alium, facit per se principle because of the fact that the healthcare institution manages the means and methods by which its employee carries the tasks associated with his/her job. This means that the healthcare institution has to answer for the negligence of its employees. Thus, the healthcare institution, together with the employee involved in tort, can be sued by its client. In a sense, then, the principle of respondent superior appears to encourage, if not oblige, healthcare institutions to implement policies that effectively manage the job performance of their employees. While the liability of the healthcare institution based on this principle is essentially dependent on whether a tort was committed and whether the employee or agent of the employer is the one who committed the tort within the scope of the employees or agents duties, both the healthcare institution and its employee are often sued together.

A healthcare institution who employs or appoints an independent contractor still has the general authority of approving the contractors final work outcome. However, the healthcare institution may not be held liable for the negligence of an independent contractor, for instance, its physician. Nonetheless, the increasing decline in the independent contractor status of physicians, the trend toward physician employment status, and discarding of the difference between medical and administrative actions collectively make the healthcare institution liable for the poor or questionable quality of care that its healthcare staff provide in relation to the doctrine of corporate liability which holds that the healthcare institution itself can be held liable for negligence.

According to the doctrine of corporate liability, the liability of negligence is tied to the healthcare institution owing to the institutions direct legal duty to its clients that is non-delegable to its medical team or other employees (Showalter). In this regard, healthcare institutions have the duties to possess the needed equipment and personnel for the services that they render and to exercise reasonable care in the selection and retention of employees.

2/ Did anything surprise you in this course?

The thing that surprises me in this course is the case of Lake Jackson Med. Spa, Ltd. v. Gaytan in which the Court of Appeals alluded to the alleged absence of physician-patient relationship between Gaytan (plaintiff) and Dr. Yarish (medical director) or Lake Jackson (medical spa) just because of the fact that Gaytan had not seen Dr. Yarish at all during consultation and treatment and that only the aesthetician conducted the procedure from which the case stemmed. In addition, the Appeals Court held that the use of medical device did not have a direct relationship with Gaytans complaint. As a result, the Court of Appeals held that Gaytans claims are not within the scope of TMLA as codified at Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. On the contrary, a physician-patient relationship appears to be present. Chapter 74 defines a health care provider as including an employeeof a health care provider or physician in the course and scope of the employment or contractual relationship (Civil Practice and Remedies Code). In relation to this, Gaytans case met the three elements of the healthcare liability claim. Also, the rules enacted by the Texas Medical Board as amended in 2019 covers Gaytans case because the rules attribute the liability to the physician regardless of whether the physician or a midlevel practitioner to whom the physician has delegated the task of conducting non-surgical medical cosmetic procedures (Legal Information Institute).

3/ What information do you think you might use in your work life or in your personal life now or in the future?

In my personal life or in my work now or in the future, I might always adhere to the concept of liability. Both the healthcare institution and its employees can be held liable for the wrongdoing of the employees. Thus, I will make sure that I am always careful enough in carrying out the tasks associated with my job.

Works Cited

Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Title 4: Liability in Tort: Chapter 74: Medical Liability. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.74.htm

Legal Information Institute. 193.17 – Nonsurgical Medical Cosmetic Procedures. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/texas/22-Tex-Admin-Code-193-17#:~:text=(a)%20Purpose.,to%20as%20%22Procedure%22).

Showalter, J. Stuart. The Law of Healthcare Administration (9th ed.). Chicago: Healthcare Administration Press, 2020.

Post 2:

Your description of at least three (3) things you learned in this class this term.
A. The provision that health of a person and the care that is to be innate to all individuals of this country and all others is not actually guaranteed. Legal issues, cost of care and finally, the insurers that are driving to keep healthcare a business, while they reap the lions share of the overall profits make the physical nature of care a contradiction.

B. More and more as we move thru the years with medical care expanding and the types or care and procedures changing daily, individual patients should be educating themselves at a level never seen before since man began to exist on this planet.  It is my belief this education should start in elementary school and continue for life.

C. Finally, political bickering about whether healthcare should be for all and paid for just like Social Security is something that many people dont even see that it is smoke and mirrors.  Healthcare is provided to a large portion of the retired, unwilling to work and disable population. Those of us that work, pay for this program but may never be able to make use of it or must continue paying for this care even after they have retired.  If this is the case, why shouldnt the entire population of citizens be able to have such given care?  This class nor the one that follows, will be able to provide that understanding and answer.

Did anything surprise you in this course?
With the simplest explanation, the shear volume of information to disseminate, was and will continue to more that can be understood or consumed either in this class or in a lifetime of preparation and learning in the healthcare field at any level. Departmentalization of career direction, levels within any hierarchy and finally, with ever changing base line information will keep the business part of healthcare as a revolving door   I wish those that are younger that are entering healthcare, a rich and educated career, with the pretext, that care for the individual and the given nature that care be provided for all, at any given cost to society, not just to the individual that finally becomes the patient.

What information do you think you might use in your work life or in your personal life now or in the future?

I believe this to be a loaded question somehow, whether an individual uses basic terminology of law, healthcare, HR, economics, politics, finance, AI, information analytics, etc. This class has expounded upon the core of what business is, whether the focus in this class was to be healthcare or not.  One could say, that being able to understand people (employees, patients, plaintiffs, defendants, etc.) any ordinary person in management should be able to apply something of what they have read or deciphered I could go back thru my legal pads full of notes or just point my finger to a page in the text and find something that I will use. One of the bigger things, the text, and my individual thoughts on some of these subjects will not be forgotten anytime some.  Lastly, my opinion of varying subjects covered; human nature, prejudicial behavior by politicians and the insurers, the right of the people to healthcare like most developed nations provide, the legal pretext of everything from contracts or individual rights; I will carry some understanding and will research and learn much more than I would have given a situation in my younger years.  I just wish I could make sure that the generation of today fully understand their need to be educated and sincere in caring about their fellow man and what will happen to this world as people of each generation leave and are replaced by others.  I always wanted to teach, and I guess I have done it in a work environment, whereas you have to opportunity to achieve a difference at a level that I once thought I wanted, but now see that I can affect learning on just as broad level of the population.  I appreciate the opportunity, time, and knowledge this class and yourself has provided!!

Thank You Shari!!

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