Indirect Liability In Health Care

Liability means that somebody has a legitimate responsibility that is owed to another person and in businesses liability cases are usually addressed and settled with some form of denomination or compensation. At the point when hospital facilities are involved with liabilities it can be expensive when litigation is framed.

Dealing with a hospital and knowing the dangers involved helps to declines suits and conceivable liabilities. Managers by being compliant and understanding the laws and what is required of the health origination can help limit any further liabilities and declines the possibility of using a lawyer to represent the hospital a law suite.

Minimizing liability. People who has ever been to a hospital or worked at a healing

center realizes that there are many systems set up to protect individuals. Beginning at the ground level in a healing facilities endeavor to limit liabilities is human resource. Recruit crew at a hospital is critical with regards to limiting risk, background checks are done on all employees and making sure that special employees such as nurses and doctors are properly licensed, are important in starting out the process of minimizing the businesses liability. Human resources is not just around to ensure the best possible individuals are hired, it is also charged accused with addressing workers that are problematic and discovering approaches to address problems that emerge inside the workforce (Leigh and Rachel, 2011).
Manage liability is the point at which business is the one to blame and could have prevented the problem in the first place. In a hospital center setting a case of an immediate liability would be if a negligent doctor at a hospital was kept on staff. If the doctor was still employed even after several negligent acts occurred then the hospital would be directly liable for any harm that came to patients because of the negligent doctors continued employment. Preparing and training occasionally to implement that appropriate prerequisites are being met and kept up is another capacity human resources addresses to keep any predictable liabilities for the clinic (Mayer,2011).
In case when it was not the mistake of the business and outside factors where to point the finger at it is thought to be indirect liability.

However, if a nurse who gave the wrong medication to a patient and it resulted in an injury to the patient, the patient could seek after legitimate charges against the facility in a negligent tort and the hospital would be indirectly liable because of the employee’s negligent actions. Staff development and education is very important in a hospital. Keeping licenses and education, such as cardio pulmonary resuscitation and continuing education requirements for nurses and doctors helps reduce the chance for errors that may occur, and keeps staff compliant with requirements set up by the occupational safety and health administration and the joint commission. By periodically check and maintain business policies, auditing the work force, and improving on the procedures and daily operations, the hospital can run smoothly and liabilities can remain avoidable (United States Department of

Labor,2013).
While mishaps do happen there are ventures to keep the liabilities at minimum. Vicarious liability is when an employer and employee have a lawful convention that assigns liability for a injury to a person who did not cause the damage. It is whoever has a particular legal relationship to the person who did the negligent act. The employer did not cause the injury but the employer does have a responsibility over the employee to make sure that actions are followed. In some cases, the principal, who is the employer, can be held liable and in other cases the agent, who is the employee, is held responsible. If a house keeper at a hospital was mopping and did not put a wet floor sign up to make people aware the floor was wet and a patient slipped the act was not intentional and specific actions where not followed by the employee that the employer had put in place. The hospital is the entity that is legally responsible even though it was the house keeper who did not follow the rules and caused the harm (Mayer,2011).
A person is always liable for his or her own torts “unless the person is insane, involuntarily intoxicated, or acting under extreme duress” (Mayer .p 772, 2011).

Criminal acts are done by people who may have a clear idea of what is morally right or wrong but still commit the act. Principal criminal liability is when an employer will not be held liable for an agent’s unauthorized criminal acts if the crimes are those requiring specific intent. Even if a principal is held vicariously liable and must pay damages to an injured third person it does not excuse the agent who actually committed the tortious acts. Moreover, If a nurse takes medication from a patient and gives the medication to another patient because the hospital was out of the said medication, then this would be considered a principal criminal liability (Mayer,2011).

Hospitals facilities should make every effort to have minimum liabilities. Hospital should have liability insurance for all the unexpected and expected claims that may arise in the business. Hospital obligation is exorbitant and takes time, employee moral. Moreover, those liability it could hurt the reputation of the hospital. All of these can be detrimental to a hospital and like many businesses a hospital is not immune from being shut down. Steps are taken and money is spent on managing risks and quality control to prevent legal matters from going to

court.