Mass. Court Expands Doctor’s Liability to Nonpatients

A Massachusetts physician is responsible to all third parties who might possibly be affected by his failure to warn a patient about the side effects of a medication, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in a decision that has the state’s medical community concerned.

Until now, a physician’s liability for failure to warn stopped at the patient. But the state’s highest court extended that liability to encompass “all those foreseeably put at risk by his failure to warn about the effects of the treatment he provides to his patients.”

Doctors are worried that this ruling might color a doctor’s decisions out of fear of being sued. “How much do you warn people?” asked Dr. Dale Magee, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

In the case, the mother of a man who was killed in a car accident caused by the patient of a Brockton doctor sued the physician for negligently prescribing a medication without warning his patient of the dangers of its side effects, and without warning him not to drive.

The state’s physicians are also worried the new rule could affect their liability insurance rates, although a leading medical insurer says it’s too early to tell. ProMutual, one of the biggest medical insurers, noted that the ruling does not apply to the actual care provided, but rather to the scope of liability for physicians, and thus may not affect malpractice rates.

But Magee is still concerned. “It opens up an entire new arena for lawyers to go after doctors,” he said, indicating his group would likely pursue legislation to reverse the ruling.

Topics Massachusetts Medical Professional Liability