HIGHLIGHTS
The law of all medical care practitioner–patient relationships is based on
the physician– patient relationship.
The core of the physician–patient relationship is the exercise of medical
judgment.
Consultants also have a legal relationship with patients.
Good Samaritan laws protect physicians who stop at accidents.
Contracts with health plans restrict the medical care practitioner’s right
to choose the patients they will treat.
Introduction
The basic legal relationship in medicine is between the physician and the
patient. Although recognizing that there are many nonphysicians delivering
medical care services, the courts and the legislatures still use the
physician–patient relationship as the paradigm for the legal rights and
responsibilities that flow between medical care practitioners and patients. At
this point in time, it is unclear how much of the law developed for the
physician–patient relationship will be applied to other medical care
practitioners. Some duties, such as the duty to protect the patient’s confidence,
clearly apply to everyone who provides medical services. Some do not—the
courts have not applied the “learned intermediary” doctrine to nurses. [
Mazur
v. Merck & Co., 964 F.2d 1348 (3d Cir. [Pa.] 1992).] Until the courts rule on
more cases involving the legal relationship between nonphysician medical care
practitioners and patients, it is difficult to predict which direction the law will
go.
