Legal Pitfalls in Nursing Care and

Supervision
Atty. Pilariza Racho-Baldovino
Assistant Professor
College of Law
Ateneo de Davao University
Article 19 Civil Code
Every person must, in the exercise
of his rights and in the
performance of his duties, act with
justice, give everyone his due, and
observe honesty and good faith.
Patients Bill of Rights

(see PDF)
Elements of Actionable Conduct
1. Acts or omission
2. Fault or negligence
3. Statutory standard of care
4. Existence of negligence
5. When negligence presumed

Definition of quasi-delict
Article 2176, CC. Whoever by act or omission
causes damage to another, there being fault
or negligence, is obliged to pay for the
damage done. Such fault or negligence, if
there is no pre-existing contractual relation
between the parties, is called a quasi-delict.
Elements of quasi-delict
1. Damages suffered by the plaintiff
2. Fault or negligence of the defendant, or
some other person from whose acts he must
respond
3. Connection of cause and effect between the
fault of negligence of the defendant and the
damages incurred by the plaintiff
Medical Malpractice
A particular form of negligence which consists in
the failure of a physician or surgeon to apply to
his practice of medicine that degree of care and
skill which is ordinarily employed by the
profession generally, under similar conditions,
and in like surrounding circumstances.
Elements of medical negligence
A patient must prove that a health care provider either
failed to do something which a reasonable prudent health
care provider would have done or that s/he did
something that a reasonably prudent health care provider
would not have done; and that failure or action caused
injury to the patient.

1. Duty
2. Breach
3. Injury
4. Proximate cause
Some acts or omissions of negligence
or malpractice
1. Wrong diagnosis, when such results from
want of requisite skill or care;
2. Unwarranted abandonment of a case after its
assumption, at least where he does not give
reasonable notice or provide competent
physician in his place;
3. Operating without patients consent where a
patient is in possession of his faculties and in
such physical health as to be able to consult
about his condition, and no emergency exists
in making it impracticable to confer with him,
or without the consent of the parents,
spouse or guardian, in the absence of an
emergency;


4. Failing to give the patient or his facily or
attendants all the necessary and proper
instructions as to the care and attention to
be given to the patient and the cautions to
be observed;
5. Allowing a foreign substance to enter or
remain in the body of the person operated
on, and this extends to the sponges and
pads;
6. failing to give warning when attending to a
patient afflicted with contagious or infectious
disease;
7. Writing an erroneous prescription;
8. Issuing wrongful certificate of insanity or
inebriety (intoxication)
Defense
1. Error in judgment rule. A physician is not
liable for error in his judgment when s/he
applies
1. ordinary and reasonable skill and care, or
2. his best judgment, or
3. keeps within recognized and approved methods
of common practice, or
4. if he forms his judgment after a careful or proper
examination or investigation
Liability of hospitals
1. For the purpose of allocating responsibility in
medical negligence cases, an employer-
employee exists between hospitals and their
attending and visiting physicians. The
hospital then is solidarily responsible for the
negligence of the latter.
Defense
Prove that the hospital observed the diligence of
a good father of a family to prevent damage
Special or limited practitioners
1. The rules and standards governing the duty and
liability of physicians and surgeons in the
performance of professional services are
APPLICABLE to nurses.
2. Nurses performing acts in the operating room
that do not require medical skill and judgment
are considered to have acted as employees of
the hospital, and the surgeon may not be held
liable for the nurses negligence therein.


Thank you