 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
York v. El-Ganzouri9/27/2004
o assume that these people are employees of the hospital.'" Gilbert, 156 Ill. 2d at 521, 622 N.E.2d at 794, quoting Arthur v. St. Peter's Hospital, 169 N.J. Super. 575, 583, 405 A.2d 443, 447 (1979).
The court further observed:
"' he critical distinction is whether the plaintiff is seeking care from the hospital itself or whether the plaintiff is looking to the hospital merely as a place for his or her personal physician to provide medical care. Except for one who seeks care from a specific physician, if a person voluntarily enters a hospital without objecting to his or her admission to the hospital, then that person is seeking care from the hospital itself. An individual who seeks care from a hospital itself, as opposed to care from his or her personal physician, accepts care from the hospital in reliance upon the fact that complete emergency room care-from blood testing to radiological readings to the endless medical support services-will be provided by the hospital through its staff.'" Gilbert, 156 Ill. 2d at 525-26, 622 N.E.2d at 796, quoting Pamperin, 144 Wis. 2d at 211-12, 423 N.W.2d at 857.
The Gilbert court determined that there were material factual issues to be tried surrounding the hospital's holding out of the emergency room doctor and of the decedent's reliance on any such holding out and reversed the summary judgment previously granted to the hospital. Gilbert, 156 Ill. 2d at 526, 622 N.E.2d at 796.
However, Rush contends that Gilbert must be tempered by the subsequent supreme court opinion in O'Banner v. McDonald's Corp., 173 Ill. 2d 208, 670 N.E.2d 632 (1996). In O'Banner, the plaintiff slipped and fell in an independently owned McDonald's restaurant and attempted to recover against the franchising corporation. Explaining that the plaintiff "would have to show that he actually did rely on the apparent agency in going to the restaurant where he was allegedly injured," the court rejected his claim, finding that the record before it gave "no indication as to why he went to the restaurant in the first place. The fact that this was a McDonald's may have been completely irrelevant to his decision. For all we know, O'Banner went there simply because it provided the closest bathroom when he needed one or because some friend asked to meet him there." O'Banner, 173 Ill. 2d at 213-14, 670 N.E.2d at 635. Rush argues that, as Butkiewicz and James held, O'Banner requires that for liability to attach to a hospital in a medical malpractice case involving an independent doctor the plaintiff must prove that a representation of the hospital induced him to come to that hospital in the first instance. We disagree.
As the McCorry court noted, those cases that have sought to incorporate the holding of O'Banner into the medical malpractice context have analyzed their cases with the wrong focus. McCorry, 331 Ill. App. 3d at 675, 771 N.E.2d at 1071 ("[Butkiewicz] focused improperly on the plaintiff's reasons for choosing the hospital, rather than the plaintiff's reasons for accepting treatment from the allegedly negligent physician"). The McCorry court reached its conclusion after noting how Kashishian v. Port, 167 Wis. 2d 24, 481 N.W.2d 277 (1992), and Pamperin v. Trinity Hospital, 144 Wis. 2d 188, 423 N.W.2d 848 (1988), two cases that the Gilbert court adopted, handled the issue of a personal physician originally causing a patient to report to a particular hospital. McCorry, 331 Ill. App. 3d at 672-74, 771 N.E.2d at 1069-70. As the Kashishian court observed, there is nothing "necessarily inconsistent with the hospital having held out specialists and/or consultants as its apparent agents," even while a primary doctor was selected for certain tasks. Kashishian, 167 W
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Illinois Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|