Reallocating Liability to Medical Staff Review Committee Members: A Response to the Hospital Corporate Liability Doctrine

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Abstract
Under the doctrine of hospital corporate liability, the hospital governing board bears the responsibility for detecting the incompetence of its staff physicians. Since hospital governing boards are generally composed of lay community members, they lack the expertise to evalutate the clinical competence of their staff. Therefore, they must delegate their screening responsibilities to medical staff review committees. After analyzing the development of hospital corporate liabilty doctrine, this Note examines the respective policing capabilities of review committees and the governing board. The Note contends that the board should not be held liable for aspects of the policing process which it is incapable of controlling. The Note concludes that, given their superior ability to evaluate clinical competency, staff review committees should shoulder the responsibility for the clinical aspects of staff evaluation, leaving remaining aspects to the hospital governing board. The Note proposes that courts should recognize a cause of action for negligence against medical staff review committee members in order to upgrade the effective policing of the medical profession.

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