Question

In which of the following situations might a physician be held liable under the Doctrine of respondeat superior?

A. An intern observing a physician in the operating room discusses the surgery and patient outside of the hospital with friends.
B. The medical assistant helps a patient take her home medications while the patient is at the office. The patient is given 2 (two) 500 mg. tablets of Metformin instead of 1 (one) 500 mg.
C. The physician renders emergency care to a patient on the roadside while on vacation.
D. The physician writes a prescription, but the pharmacist compounds it incorrectly.
E. The hospital housekeeping staff did not clean up a spill and a patient fell as a result.

Answer 1

A physician might be held liable under the Doctrine of respondeat superior in situation B when a medical assistant administers the wrong dosage of a medication. This doctrine makes employers liable for their employees' negligent acts while performing work duties.

Step-by-step explanation:

In which of the following situations might a physician be held liable under the Doctrine of respondeat superior? The most applicable situation is B. The medical assistant helps a patient take her home medications while the patient is at the office. The patient is given 2 (two) 500 mg. tablets of Metformin instead of 1 (one) 500 mg. Under the respondeat superior, an employer can be held legally responsible for the negligent acts of their employees if those acts occur within the scope of employment. In case B, since the medical assistant is performing their job duties under the supervision of the physician, the physician may be held liable for the assistant's error.

However, the other scenarios described do not typically fall under the respondeat superior doctrine. An intern discussing patient details outside the hospital (A), a physician providing roadside emergency care (C), a pharmacist making a medication compounding error (D), and hospital housekeeping failing to clean up a spill (E), are all instances where respondeat superior would not directly apply to the physician.