When is a hospital liable for negligence?
A hospital is liable when its own systems or employees fall below the standard of care — understaffing, poor infection control, failure to monitor, credentialing a dangerous physician, or nursing and medication errors by staff. It can be directly liable (its own systems) or vicariously liable for its employees.
What is the difference between direct and vicarious liability?
Direct (corporate) liability holds the hospital responsible for its own institutional failures. Vicarious liability (respondeat superior) holds it responsible for the negligence of its employees. A key distinction: many attending physicians are independent contractors, not employees, so the hospital may not be vicariously liable for them.
Are hospital-acquired infections malpractice?
Not automatically. Infections happen even with proper care. It becomes negligence when the hospital breached infection-control standards — poor sterilization, hand-hygiene failures, or ignoring sepsis warning signs. You must prove the breach caused the infection and resulting harm.
Can I sue both the hospital and the doctor?
Often, yes. Where a nurse or hospital system and an independent physician both contributed, both are typically named. In Canada the physician is CMPA-defended while the hospital defends its staff separately; in the US the hospital defends employees but usually not independent-contractor physicians.