Table of Contents Study Questions ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Cases For Discussion................................................................................................................................................. 1 Study Questions 1. Frontline health care professionals can help prevent medical malpractice lawsuits by: • Representing themselves and their employers in a professional manner. • Know the applicable laws and regulations. • Understand their scope of practice. • Maintain positive patient interactions. • Minimize the nonmedical and nonlegal variables involved in malpractice. • Abide by HIPAA's regulations regarding patient confidentiality. 2. The owner of a sole proprietorship has unlimited personal liability and does not have the tax advantages of an LLC or a corporation. There is no legal separation between you and your business in a sole proprietorship. 3. Unlike a partnership, a person’s interest in a corporation is represented by stock, and the risk for the corporation’s debt does not extend past the amount invested; except for very rare situations (called piercing the corporate veil), the personal assets of a corporation’s shareholder are not at risk to cover corporate liability. 4. A provider may be tempted to achieve maximum financial reward by not ordering tests or procedures or prescribing medicine. 5. Personal health information has become a lucrative target for illegal actions on the internet. Health care companies have more liability than just HIPAA violations, and they now need to be stalwart defenders of their technologies' security. Cases For Discussion 1. The Central Texas Medical Foundation and Brackenridge Hospital should be held vicariously liable for Dr. Villafani’s treatment of the plaintiff. The Foundation and Brackenridge Hospital had control over the details of Dr. Villafani’s work, so the court concluded he was the Foundation’s “borrowed employee” when he treated plaintiff. Consequently, St. Joseph’s could not be vicariously liable under the theory of respondeat superior, in part, because St. Joseph’s had no control over Dr. Villafani’s work at Brackenridge. St. Joseph Hosp. v. Wolff, 94 S.W.3d 513 (Tex., 2002). 2. Parkview may be held vicariously liable for Christian's misconduct even if the actions in question ran directly counter to Parkview rules or policies, such as the Confidentiality Agreement and the Acknowledgment Regarding Access to Patient Information. The employee’s conduct was likely incidental to her duties at work because it was "of the same general nature" as her authorized job duties, which included use of the electronical medical records, management of schedules and communication, and other tasks that required access to patie