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D.P. v. Wrangell General Hospital5/19/2000
y upon the hospital's duty of care and should have been admitted for that purpose. We therefore hold that the interrogatory answer is admissible on the issue of the defendants' duty of care.
V. CONCLUSION
We REVERSE the directed verdicts in favor of the defendants and REMAND this case for a new trial utilizing an ordinary negligence framework.
CARPENETI, Justice, dissenting.
I. INTRODUCTION
This medical malpractice case raises the question whether a hospital staff exercised care consistent with professional medical standards of restraint and supervision for a psychiatric patient. In such cases, Alaska law requires expert testimony to establish a breach of the standard of care before the plaintiff can recover. Because plaintiff offered no such testimony, even when notified by the trial court that it was required, I would affirm the trial court's decision to dismiss the case.
II. DISCUSSION
The burdens of proof in a medical malpractice action in Alaska are set out in AS 09.55.540:
(a) In a malpractice action based on the negligence or wilful misconduct of a health care provider, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
(1) the degree of knowledge or skill possessed or the degree of care ordinarily exercised under the circumstances, at the time of the act complained of, by health care providers in the field or specialty in which the defendant is practicing;
(2) that the defendant either lacked this degree of knowledge or skill or failed to exercise this degree of care; and
(3) that as a proximate result of this lack of knowledge or skill or the failure to exercise this degree of care the plaintiff suffered injuries that would not otherwise have been incurred.
(b) In malpractice actions there is no presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant.
Therefore, it was D.P.'s burden to provide evidence establishing the applicable medical standard of care, the defendants' breach of that standard of care, and that the breach caused her injuries. Moreover, as D.P. concedes, this court has previously followed the well-established rule that " n medical malpractice actions the jury ordinarily may find a breach of professional duty only on the basis of expert testimony."
A. D.P.'s Case Was a Medical Malpractice Action as That Term Is Used in AS 09.55.540 and .550.
The court concludes that D.P.'s claims do not raise "'strict' medical malpractice" issues and that " t remains far from clear . . . that D.P.'s case should be viewed as a 'medical malpractice' action." I disagree. Both the broad statutory use of the term "medical malpractice" and the commonly recognized legal definition of "malpractice" favor an application that covers lawsuits like D.P.'s.
The definitions section of the statutory chapter governing medical malpractice claims contains individual definitions indicative of the breadth of services and types of health service providers that the legislature intended that chapter to cover. For instance, AS 09.55.560(4) defines "professional negligence" as "a negligent act or omission by a health care provider in rendering professional services." And AS 09.55.560(5) defines "professional services" to include a "service provided by a health care provider that is within the scope of services for which the health care provider is licensed." Finally, AS 09.55.560(1) defines "health care provider" to include: "a nurse . . . ; a physician . . . ; a hospital . . . ; an employee of a health care provider acting within the course and scope of employment." Taken together, the
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