Page 24 - APP Collaboration - Assessing the Risk (Part One)

SVMIC Advanced Practice Provider Collaboration: Assessing the Risk

Physicians expose themselves to potential liability for any

negligence of those they supervise or enter into collaborative
arrangements with, irrespective of the employment relationship

between the physician and APP. As a general matter, an APP
stands in an agency relationship with his or her supervising

or collaborating physician when providing authorized medical
services within the scope of the parties’ joint protocol or

agreement. Perhaps the most obvious implication is that the
negligence of a supervisee can impose the burden of litigation

upon the supervising physician and could result in the physician
having to report a judgment to the National Practitioner Data

Bank.

Before examining some cases, let us review the legal theories
and general definitions that will be used in this course.

Malpractice: Professional negligence – an abrogation of a
duty owed by a healthcare provider to the patient; it is the

failure to exercise the degree of care used by reasonably
careful practitioners of like qualifications in the same or

similar circumstances. For a plaintiff to collect damages
in a court of law, the plaintiff’s attorney must prove four

elements: (1) a duty of care was owed by the practitioner; (2)
the practitioner violated the applicable standard of care; (3)

the person suffered a compensable injury; and (4) the injury
was caused in fact by the substandard conduct. The burden

of proving these elements is on the plaintiff in a malpractice
lawsuit. Proving damages is an essential element in any

medical malpractice or negligence action. Damages
generally involve one or more of the following types of

expenses or losses: present and future medical expenses,
pain and suffering, present and future lost wages or business

profits, and other economic losses.

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