LaCoste v. Pendleton Methodist Hospital, a New Orleans, LA case that eventually settled involved a 73-year-old who died when she was recovering from pneumonia. She needed a ventilator when the defendant Pendleton Methodist Hospital lost power during Hurricane Katrina, and its backup generator failed from flooding.
LaCoste v. Pendleton Methodist Hospital may be persuasive precedent for a personal injury case in Chicago, IL when evaluating the standard of care medical providers must apply during emergency situations. With natural catastrophes like fires, earthquakes, blizzards commonplace, courts will be looking at what kind of care a hospital needs to apply during unanticipated crises.
The plaintiffs in LaCoste sued based on premises liability, rather than professional negligence. They claimed business decisions not related to medical care were to blame for the death. A plaintiff basing a claim on general negligence rather malpractice increases the liability risk for a hospital by opening the door to more lawsuits by other patients who die from the same emergency non-preparedness rather than the mistreatment of a few healthcare professionals.
Professional negligence by a healthcare provider occurs when the provider deviates from the reasonable standard of care in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient. Some rules of care in the medical profession include: doctors have a duty to follow up on patients, nurses have a duty to keep accurate records, and hospitals have a duty to keep facilities free from infections. In a malpractice action, the standard of care is based on expert testimony. For example, with hospitals dealing with infections, there have been expert studies on systems for monitoring bacterial resistance, institutional guidelines to control the use of antibiotics, and contact precautions to patients suspected to be infected with microorganisms.
Premises liability laws require property owners, including business owners, to keep property in a reasonably safe condition. A duty is owed to all persons within the foreseeable zone of danger. Property owners must warn visitors of any hazards when they create a dangerous condition on property, or allow a condition to persist for a long time. An unreasonably long period of time for a property owner to allow a defective or dangerous condition to exist depends on the type of property and the time another property owner in the same position would recognize and repair or remove the hazard. In LaCoste, a memo documented the generator deficiencies. This memo showed the hospital knew there was a problem, but did not address it. The hospital might have been in a better position to prove it was not negligent if it was able to show it considered possibilities, justified decisions based on budgets, consulted with risk management like insurance coverage, and dealt with the problem rather than doing nothing.
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