Generally, a medical malpractice claim can be brought against a licensed health care provider. This can include a person, corporation, facility or institution licensed by the state to provide health care or professional services, or an officer, employee, or agent thereof acting in the course and scope of his employment. A claim can be brought against physicians, dentists, nurses, therapists, technicians, hospitals, and pharmacists, among others. A physician commits medical malpractice if he fails to act in the same manner a reasonably prudent physician in the same field of medicine would act under the same circumstances. Nurses, therapists and other health care providers, and the hospitals or clinics they work for, can be held responsible for their failure to meet accepted standards of care in their particular field.
In Indiana, a hospital may be held liable for the acts of its independently contracted physicians under certain circumstances. It depends upon the reasonableness of the patient`s belief that care was being provided by hospital employees. In general, a hospital will be deemed the provider of care unless it gives notice that the physician is an independent contractor or the patient had knowledge of the physician`s independence. Indiana provides sovereign immunity in many cases to governmental entities and their employees acting within the scope of their employees. This applies to city or county hospitals, state colleges and universities.
