by Tom Leatherbury and Brenda Strama
Rose v. Garland Community Hospital, 87 S.W.3d 188 (Tex. App.-Dallas Aug. 20, 2002, pet. filed). The Dallas Court of Appeals recently decided that a negligent credentialing claim against a hospital is not a health care liability claim and therefore is not subject to the caps on damages and other protections established by the Texas Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act, Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. art. 4590i ("Article 4590i"). In Rose, even though the injury at issue directly arose from medical treatment, the plaintiff creatively argued that Article 4590i did not apply at all to her claims because her injury could be traced back to the defendant hospital's allegedly negligent conduct that occurred before any medical services were rendered to her. Adopting the plaintiff's novel argument, the Dallas Court of Appeals rendered the only published Texas decision informing medical malpractice claimants how to plead their claims against hospitals in order to avoid the protections in Article 4590i. The hospital has appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Because of the importance of this case to all hospitals, health care facilities, and large physician clinics that are vulnerable to claims of negligent credentialing, it would be to the health care industry's great advantage to file an amicus curiae brief to the Texas Supreme Court in support of the hospital's position that the article 4590I damages caps and other limitations for medical malpractice claims should apply in this case. A copy of a memorandum discussing the case can be found at
http://www.velaw.com/publications/healthcare/miscellaneous/rosevgarland.pdf.
If you are interested in participating in a consortium of clients to file an amicus curiae brief in this case, please call or e-mail Tom Leatherbury, Dallas, 214-220-7792 (tleatherbury@velaw.com) or Brenda Strama, Houston, 713-758-4590 (bstrama@velaw.com). The consortium should be established soon because of the timeframes for submitting a brief to the Texas Supreme Court.
We hope you will seriously consider joining the consortium on this important matter.
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