O'Shea v. Phillips

746 So. 2d 1105, 1999 WL 741115
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 24, 1999
Docket98-2647
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 746 So. 2d 1105 (O'Shea v. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Shea v. Phillips, 746 So. 2d 1105, 1999 WL 741115 (Fla. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

746 So.2d 1105 (1999)

Daniel O'SHEA, and Pamela O'Shea, his wife, Appellants,
v.
Dr. Reginald PHILLIPS, M.D., and Cleveland Clinic Florida, a Florida corporation, Appellees.

No. 98-2647.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

September 17, 1999.
Opinion Denying Rehearing November 24, 1999.

Beverly A. Pohl, and Bruce S. Rogow of Bruce S. Rogow, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, and Steven D. Miller, Plantation, for appellants.

Paul R. Regensdorf, and Thomas G. Aubin of Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for Appellee-Cleveland Clinic Florida, a Florida corporation.

GROSS, J.

The issue in this case is whether Chapter 766, Florida Statutes (1997), presuit requirements apply to a claim that a health care facility negligently supervised or retained an employee who sexually assaulted a patient. We hold that the chapter's presuit requirements do apply, and we affirm the order of dismissal entered by the trial court.

Daniel O'Shea ("O'Shea") filed a second amended complaint against Cleveland Clinic Florida ("Cleveland Clinic" or "clinic") alleging two causes of action: negligent supervision and negligent retention of a neurologist employed at the clinic, Dr. Reginald Phillips. A third count of the complaint was the claim of O'Shea's wife, *1106 Pamela, for loss of consortium. The O'Sheas filed their original complaint against both Phillips and the clinic on September 27, 1996. Two of the causes of action asserted in the original complaint concerned the clinic's negligent supervision and retention of Phillips.

The second amended complaint alleged that on October 29, 1992, Phillips sexually battered O'Shea in a clinic examination room by digital penetration of O'Shea's anus.[1] O'Shea had gone to the clinic for medical treatment. The pleading asserted that before October 29, the clinic knew that Phillips had sexually battered Grant Waag, another clinic patient, in a similar fashion. The Waag incident occurred in August, 1992, and was reported immediately to the clinic's chief of staff.

On June 30, 1998, the trial court granted the clinic's motion to dismiss on alternative grounds—that before filing suit, the O'Sheas had not complied with the presuit requirements of Chapter 766, Florida Statutes (1997), and that the claims were barred by the two year statute of limitations on medical malpractice claims contained in section 95.11(4)(b), Florida Statutes (1997).

Chapter 766, Florida Statutes (1997) "sets out a complex presuit investigation procedure that both the claimant and defendant must follow before a medical negligence claim may be brought in court." Kukral v. Mekras, 679 So.2d 278, 280 (Fla.1996). In identifying those actions to which the required presuit notice and procedures apply, section 766.106(1)(a) defines a "[c]laim for medical malpractice" as a "claim arising out of the rendering of, or the failure to render, medical care or services." Sections 766.201-766.212, Florida Statutes (1997), concern presuit investigation and arbitration of "medical negligence claims." Section 766.202(6) defines "[m]edical negligence" as "medical malpractice, whether grounded in tort or in contract." Reading these sections together, the supreme court has held that "chapter 766's notice and presuit screening requirements apply to claims that `aris[e] out of the rendering of, or the failure to render, medical care or services.'" J.B. v. Sacred Heart Hosp. of Pensacola, 635 So.2d 945, 949 (Fla.1994).

Section 766.102(1), Florida Statutes (1997), establishes the standard of liability for a health care provider in a negligence action:

The prevailing professional standard of care for a given health care provider shall be that level of care, skill, and treatment which, in light of all relevant surrounding circumstances, is recognized as acceptable and appropriate by reasonably prudent similar health care providers.

Chapter 766 imposes an additional duty on health care facilities, which is to assure the competence of medical staff and personnel through careful selection and review. A patient may sue for the failure to exercise due care in fulfilling this duty, when such failure is the legal cause of injury to a patient. Section 766.110, Florida Statutes (1997), provides:

(1) All health care facilities, including hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, as defined in chapter 395, have a duty to assure comprehensive risk management and the competence of their medical staff and personnel through careful selection and review, and are liable for a failure to exercise due care in fulfilling these duties. These duties shall include, but not be limited to:
(a) The adoption of written procedures for the selection of staff members and a periodic review of the medical care and treatment rendered to patients by each member of the medical staff;
(b) The adoption of a comprehensive risk management program which fully *1107 complies with the substantive requirements of s. 395.0197 as appropriate to such hospital's size, location, scope of services, physical configuration, and similar relevant factors;
(c) The initiation and diligent administration of the medical review and risk management processes established in paragraphs (a) and (b) including the supervision of the medical staff and hospital personnel to the extent necessary to ensure that such medical review and risk management processes are being diligently carried out.
Each such facility shall be liable for a failure to exercise due care in fulfilling one or more of these duties when such failure is a proximate cause of injury to a patient.

(Italics supplied).

Section 766.110(1)(b) requires a health care facility to adopt a comprehensive risk management program which fully complies with the substantive requirements of section 395.0197, Florida Statutes (Supp. 1998). That section specifies the mandatory components of an internal risk management program. One of these components concerns acts of sexual abuse or misconduct perpetrated by an employee of a health care facility:

(9) The internal risk manager of each licensed facility shall:
(a) Investigate every allegation of sexual misconduct which is made against a member of the facility's personnel who has direct patient contact, when the allegation is that the sexual misconduct occurred at the facility or on the grounds of the facility; and
(b) Report every allegation of sexual misconduct to the administrator of the licensed facility.
(c) Notify the family or guardian of the victim, if a minor, that an allegation of sexual misconduct has been made and that an investigation is being conducted;
(10) Any witness who witnessed or who possesses actual knowledge of the act that is the basis of an allegation of sexual abuse shall:
(a) Notify the local police; and
(b) Notify the hospital risk manager and the administrator.
For purposes of this subsection, "sexual abuse" means acts of a sexual nature committed for the sexual gratification of anyone upon, or in the presence of, a vulnerable adult, without the vulnerable adult's informed consent, or a minor. "Sexual abuse" includes, but is not limited to, the acts defined in s.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
746 So. 2d 1105, 1999 WL 741115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oshea-v-phillips-fladistctapp-1999.