Medical malpractice: Whose doctor is it? The University of Miami’s or Jackson Memorial Hospital’s?
If you’re a patient at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital, it could have made a big difference whether your physician is acting on behalf of the University or on behalf of the Hospital.
The University is a privately-owned, deep pocket institution, fully collectible, and entitled to no special treatment under law. Whereas Jackson Memorial is a county Hospital, a public institution, covered by Florida sovereign immunity law, which carries all kinds of restrictions and limitations on recovery.
Legally, the question has now been put to rest. If you’re treated by a University of Miami doctor while at Jackson Memorial Hospital, by law, that doctor is deemed to be an agent of the Hospital, not an agent of the University.
A 2011 amendment to Florida’s sovereign immunity law specifically states that physicians from a medical school are agents of the state and entitled to sovereign immunity when the medical school contracts to provide medical care in a teaching Hospital. In accord with that change, Jackson and the University have re-written their long-standing operating agreement to provide that all UM faculty members are covered by sovereign immunity, even when caring for private paying patients, not just indigents.
As a result, the University is “immune” from getting sued because by law, its doctors are legally deemed agents of the public hospital with sovereign immunity. This arrangement has gone far in discouraging malpractice claims at Jackson–to the benefit of the Hospital and University, but also to the detriment of those patients who may have experienced the consequences of malpractice.
