In a case on appeal decided by the District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida Fifth District (“Appellate Court”) on August 11, 2023, the Appellant, who was a patient in the Appellee hospital, alleged that while she was walking towards the restroom she slipped and fell. The only cause alleged for the slip and fall was that the floor was wet and slippery. The only duties allegedly breached were Appellee’s duties to properly maintain the floor in a safe condition or to warn of the dangerous condition, i.e., the wet, slippery floor. Appellant did not allege that Appellee had breached any prevailing professional standard of care owed to her by a health care provider, which allegation would be required to plead a medical malpractice claim.
The hospital moved to dismiss, referring to matters outside the four corners of the amended complaint, namely that Appellant was a patient at Appellee’s facility and that the reason she fell was that she became weak while walking to the restroom with assistance from a nurse. The trial court relied upon these additional matters in reaching its decision to dismiss the amended complaint.
Florida Medical Malpractice Act
In determining whether an action sounds in medical malpractice, courts must—on a case-by-case basis—examine the allegations in the complaint and accept them as true. Because the presuit requirements of the FMMA limit the constitutional right of access to courts, they must be narrowly construed. The mere fact that a wrongful act occurs in a medical setting does not automatically transform the contested action into one that sounds in medical malpractice; the wrongful act must be ‘directly related to the improper application of medical services and the use of professional judgment or skill.’
In her amended complaint, Appellant included customary, garden-variety slip and fall allegations: that the condition had existed long enough for Appellee to have been on notice, and that she was injured and suffered damages as a result of Appellee’s negligence.
The Appellate Court held: “We find the instant amended complaint fits into the category of a simple negligence case that can be resolved without reference to any medical standards of care. Accordingly, it should not have been dismissed as a noncompliant medical malpractice case. However, should the case change over time, morphing into a medical malpractice case, Appellee would not be foreclosed from seeking dismissal or summary resolution on the same grounds it successfully pursued below.”
Source Thomas v. St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Inc., Case No. 5D23-22.
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