Consider the following scenario: A patient seeks emergency care at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., and is discharged with medications, including a narcotic. The patient allegedly becomes unconscious from the medications while operating a car and crashes head on into a bus, injuring the driver. Is the physician responsible?
The Litigation Center of the AMA and State Medical Societies and the Medical Society of the State of New York say no, the physician is not responsible, according to an opinion presented by the AMA.
The event described above actually occurred, and was recently brought before the New York Court of Appeals. The court is examining the issue after the bus driver appealed a decision from a lower court that there were insufficient claims.
If the physician were responsible for third parties, it would make physicians "liable to a prohibitive number of possible plaintiffs," the statement reads.
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