A Tennessee appellate panel upheld the trial court’s ruling that a hospital could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of nonemployee physicians under the Governmental Tort Liability Act.
The plaintiff, Jefferson Howell, sued Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital and Erlanger Health System, along with contractor Emergency Physicians, P.C., in a health care liability action in October 2016. Howell received treatment for a lacerated foot in August 2015 at the Erlanger emergency room, where he was later discharged after his foot was sutured, according to the opinion filed in the Tennessee Court of Appeals Friday.
