A recent Cook County case has held that a hospital has no responsibility to a patient for the negligence of a doctor on its staff where the fine-print consent form provided by the hospital stated that its physicians were not employees of the hospital. The patient had not read the form before signing it because, as he testified, he was in too much pain. In this case, the Appellate Court protected the hospital, even though its physicians negligently treated the patient, and allowing him to suffer a ruptured aneurysm because its consent form stated: “I have been informed and understand that physicians providing services to me at Ingalls, such as my personal physician, Emergency Department and Urgent Aid physicians, radiologists, pathologists, anesthesiologists, on-call physicians, consulting physicians, surgeons, and allied health care providers working with those physicians are not employees, agents or apparent agents of Ingalls but are independent medical practitioners who have been permitted to use Ingalls’ facilities for the care and treatment of their patients. I further understand that each physician will bill me separately for their services. Frezados v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, 2013 IL App (1st) 121835 (June 5, 2013).
If you or a loved one has been injured by a doctor’s or hospital’s negligence, we may be able to help.
