0:01

I talk just a bit about common scenarios that we see.

0:04

The first is a, uh, that, that we have is a failure

0:08

to supervise, and we see technologists

0:10

and nurses leave patients unattended,

0:14

resulting in a patient falling

0:15

for the table and injuring themselves.

0:18

We've had, we've had several of those,

0:20

and the question is, who's responsible in that circumstance?

0:25

Go back to the basic premise. What are the facts of that?

0:29

Who was supposed to look over that?

0:31

Is it the, is it the radiologist

0:33

who may be sitting in the room reading film?

0:36

Well, no, not really.

0:38

Could a radiologist in that circumstance be found liable?

0:41

Yes, but only if they didn't exercise,

0:45

do care to the patient.

0:48

If they were actually treating the patient.

0:51

If, if this was a, just a go in, you get on the table,

0:56

the tech, the technologist for whatever reason,

0:59

leaves the room, leaves the person unattended

1:01

and the person falls.

1:03

It is unlikely that the radiologist will be found liable

1:06

because there was no real control there.

1:08

That will be the technologist,

1:10

and of course the institution will be liable in

1:12

that circumstance and,

1:14

and anesthesiology case where a young man was shot

1:19

through and through on the left side of his abdomen,

1:22

he had surgery and it looked like

1:24

it was gonna be a long surgery.

1:25

Turned out it wasn't.

1:26

It was a through and through injury

1:28

with no major complications in the abdomen.

1:31

They got him out of, uh, surgery

1:33

and put him in the,

1:35

he was still still in the operating room.

1:38

They woke him up and then they had him sit there for a while

1:42

and by the time they wheeled him into pacu,

1:45

his O2 SAT rate was about 35

1:48

and he suffered a severe brain injury.

1:51

Well, who was responsible for that?

1:54

Well, was it the surgeon? No, it was not the surgeon.

1:58

The surgeon was not liable

1:59

because under our, our basic premise here, the facts

2:02

that the surgeon did what the surgeon was supposed

2:04

to do and turned him over.

2:06

How about the anesthesiologist?

2:08

Yeah, probably because they have

2:10

that kind of responsibility.

2:11

How about the nursing? Yeah, probably

2:14

because they still have responsibility

2:16

and certainly the institution, but not the surgeon.

2:19

In that case, some people are gonna be put in, some left out

2:24

delegating diagnostics.

2:26

Well, that's, that's fairly an easy one.

2:28

If you delegate someone to, to, to read a film

2:31

and to give a, a diagnosis on that film,

2:34

and that is an error.

2:36

Then under borrowed servant,

2:38

if you have your resident do it.

2:39

If you have someone else do it.

2:41

Under borrowed servant, yes, vicarious liability applies

2:46

the absence of required oversight.

2:48

The radiologist is required to supervise the procedure

2:52

and if there's a failure to carry that out,

2:54

there is responsibility.

2:56

Once again, really fact-based

2:58

Here with this, as I mentioned

3:01

before, I see cases, the common scenario in these cases

3:06

of failure to communicate, failure to communicate properly

3:11

is something routine, is something urgent.

3:16

Or if some is something stat, they're the, they're the three

3:20

that we designations, that we've seen by people.

3:23

The communication of that is really important.

3:27

Obviously in your practice, you know that.

3:29

Alright, if it's important in your practice,

3:32

then it's important when you're evaluating liability,

3:36

and we'll talk about that in a moment.