Hospital Not Liable For Negligent Acts Of Nonemployee Physicians: The Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA) removes immunity from liability when an injury is caused by the negligent actions of governmental employees acting within the scope of their employment. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-20-205 (2012). Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-20-107(a) (2012) provides that in order to be considered an employee for purposes of the GTLA, the individual must meet each of the following five elements:
(1) The governmental entity itself selected and engaged the person in question to perform services;
(2) The governmental entity itself is liable for the payment of compensation for the performance of such services and the person receives all of such person’s compensation directly from the payroll department of the governmental entity in question;
(3) The person receives the same benefits as all other employees of the governmental entity in question including retirement benefits and the eligibility to participate in insurance programs;
(4) The person acts under the control and direction of the governmental entity not only as to the result to be accomplished but as to the means and details by which the result is accomplished; and
(5) The person is entitled to the same job protection system and rules, such as civil service or grievance procedures, as are other persons employed by the governmental entity in question.
Underlying Facts
The plaintiffs filed suit against the defendant hospital, which is a governmental entity, alleging negligence by physicians practicing medicine within the hospital emergency department. The supervising physician was not an employee of the defendant hospital but an employee of a company contracting with the defendant hospital. The medical resident physician and medical student treating the patient in the emergency department also were not employees of the defendant hospital.
During summary judgment proceedings, the plaintiffs presented no evidence of direct liability by the defendant hospital or of negligence by the nursing staff at the defendant hospital. Plaintiffs presented such evidence only as to physicians not directly employed by the defendant hospital.
In its opinion filed on October 7, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Knoxville held: “In the present case, Plaintiffs included no allegation of negligence on the part of any employee of Erlanger and admitted for the purposes of summary judgment that the nursing staff at Erlanger had met the standard of acceptable care in their care and treatment of Patient. Because Plaintiffs’ allegations against Erlanger were that of vicarious liability and not direct liability, we hold consistent with Gilreath, as did the Trial Court, that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that Erlanger is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law because the GTLA prevented Erlanger from being held vicariously liable for the actions of non-employees. Therefore, we affirm the Trial Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Erlanger.”
Source Howell v. Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority d/b/a Erlanger Health System, No. E2021-01197-COA-R3-CV.
Source Blackburn v. McLean, No. M2021-00417-COA-R3-CV.
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