Rhoads v. Pottsville Hospital

31 Pa. D. & C.4th 500, 1996 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 297
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Schuylkill County
DecidedMarch 19, 1996
Docketno. S-1795-1995
StatusPublished

This text of 31 Pa. D. & C.4th 500 (Rhoads v. Pottsville Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Schuylkill County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rhoads v. Pottsville Hospital, 31 Pa. D. & C.4th 500, 1996 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 297 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1996).

Opinion

BALDWIN, J.,

The plaintiffs Karla and Victor Rhoads filed a complaint on September 15, 1995, naming as defendants The Pottsville Hospital and Wame Clinic, Dr. Jeffrey Narmi, Dr. Samuel Slimmer and Concord-Portex. Count II of the complaint alleges medical malpractice against the physicians and the hospital; Counts III and IV allege claims of fraud and misrepresentation and assault and battery against the hospital; Count V alleges a claim for destruction of [502]*502evidence against the hospital; Counts VI and VII are claims against the hospital for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress; and Count VIII is a claim against all parties by Victor Rhoads for loss of consortium. The physician defendants have filed preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer to Counts II and VIII, and the hospital has filed preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer to Counts II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII. Those preliminary objections are currently before the court for disposition.

A preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer admits all well-pleaded facts and all inferences reasonably deducible therefrom. It tests the legal sufficiency of the challenged complaint and will be sustained only in those cases where the pleader has clearly failed to state a claim for which relief may be granted. Any doubt must be resolved in favor of the plaintiff. Creeger Brick and Building Supply Inc. v. Mid-State Bank and Trust Co., SEDA, 385 Pa. Super. 30, 560 A.2d 151 (1989).

Plaintiff Karla Rhoads alleges that on October 5, 1993, she was working on the third floor of The Pottsville Hospital as a respiratory therapist-employee of the hospital when she received a call that she was needed in the emergency room. When she arrived at the emergency room, Dr. Narmi instructed her to perform a breathing treatment on a patient and to do an arterial blood gas sampling. This involved taking blood from an artery in the patient’s wrist. The plaintiff used a blood gas kit manufactured by Concord-Portex to withdraw the blood. She drew the blood as per the instructions, having performed the procedure over 100 times in the past. This time the patient’s blood splattered into the plaintiff’s eyes, tear ducts, nostrils and mouth, allegedly due to a defect in the arterial blood gas kit. [503]*503She placed the kit in the emergency room disposal container for used syringes and needles and returned to her third floor station to wash off the blood.

About 30 minutes later she was called back to the emergency room to perform medical procedures on another patient. At this time other nurses told her that the patient on whom she had performed the arterial blood gas sampling was HIV positive. After attempting to organize her thoughts and compose herself, she located the assistant supervisor of her section, who directed her on the procedure used when infected blood has been ingested. She alleges that at this moment the hospital ceased acting as her employer and became her caretaker and medical provider.

The supervisor instructed her to return to the emergency room to complete an incident report with the nurse manager. She then saw Dr. Narmi, but he failed to give her any treatment, only handing her a hospital pamphlet about HIV virus. Dr. Narmi then went off duty and Dr. Slimmer became the emergency room physician-in-charge.

The nurse manager informed the plaintiff that Dr. Slimmer insisted her blood work be obtained. She claims that the manager, on orders from Slimmer, deceitfully and fraudulently told her that this test was needed for the sole purpose of ascertaining whether or not she had become infected with HIV; but that this was a fabrication, and the real reason for obtaining the test was to see if she was already HIV positive prior to the incident. The hospital released her without any counseling, medications, referral to an infectious disease specialist, and without a hepatitis screening.

The next day the plaintiff was contacted by the hospital’s infection control/health coordinator who told her to return to the hospital to discuss a prescription for [504]*504AZT and to take a pregnancy test. A Dr. Kraus prescribed AZT, and the prescription was filled at the hospital pharmacy. The plaintiff claims that the AZT medication caused sickness, vomiting and loss of weight. She also claims that Dr. Slimmer treated her during subsequent visits to the hospital and that he showed a lack of knowledge as to HIV and AZT; that he did not obtain informed consent for the treatment prescribed by him, including the administering of the blood test and the drug AZT; that he failed to inform her of the experimental nature of the drug and its side effects; and that he failed to refer her to a psychologist for emotional counseling. The plaintiff consulted with another physician who was an infectious disease specialist, and that physician discovered that the patient whose blood had splashed on her had Hepatitis C. The physician then gave the plaintiff the necessary gamma globulin shots. It is alleged that these shots should have been given within six days of exposure, but because of the negligence of Dr. Slimmer and the hospital, the plaintiff did not receive the shots until three weeks after the incident. There is no allegation that the plaintiff contracted either HIV or hepatitis.

The physicians in their preliminary objections argue that the alleged injuries by the plaintiff are work-related and as such, her recovery is limited to compensation under the Workers’ Compensation Act. They further argue that her claims are not sufficiently specific.

An employee injured at work is provided a remedy under the Workers’ Compensation Act. 77 P.S. §1 et seq. The remedy provided under the Act is exclusive and in place of all other liability against the employer. 77 P.S. §481. The exclusivity of the remedy applies not only to the employer, but also to co-employees of that employer. 77 P.S. §72. Since the plaintiff alleges [505]*505that Dr. Narmi and Dr. Slimmer are employees of the hospital, if her alleged injuries are found to be work-related, her only remedy against her employer or her co-employees is under the Workers’ Compensation Act in the absence of an intentional tort.

Although the plaintiff admits to being an employee of the hospital, she argues that when the assistant supervisor of the respiratory section directed her how to proceed with respect to the incident of ingesting the infected blood, the hospital ceased acting as her employer and became her medical provider. An employee’s injury falls within the purview of the Workers’ Compensation Act when the employee is injured while actually engaged in the furtherance of the employer’s business or affairs. Heimbach v. Heimbach, 401 Pa. Super. 119, 121, 584 A.2d 1008, 1009 (1991), citing W.C.A.B. (Slaugenhaupt) v. United States Steel Corp., 31 Pa. Commw. 329, 376 A.2d 271 (1977).

The plaintiff argues that she was not in the furtherance of her employer’s business when she received treatment by the emergency room doctors and claims that the hospital was acting in a manner independent of its status as an employer when her injuries occurred.

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Bluebook (online)
31 Pa. D. & C.4th 500, 1996 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhoads-v-pottsville-hospital-pactcomplschuyl-1996.