Virginia Court Rules Doctors Liable Even If Affiliated With Charitable Foundations

Greg Webb

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The Virginia Supreme Court recently ruled that doctors affiliated with charitable foundations are not immune from malpractice suits. The cases involved the University of Virginia Health Services foundation whose lawyers argued that since its doctors were working for a non-profit organization, they should be immune from malpractice suits. The court, however, ruled that although the work done by the physicians is admirable, the volume of the services was not charitable in nature. Therefore, doctors working with charitable foundations may be sued for malpractice. If the court had ruled on the behalf of the physicians, it could have created a giant surge of doctors working under the umbrella of a non-profit organization in order to avoid liability, thus ridding Virginia of a lot of medical malpractice litigation, denying the claims of many deserving patients. The name of the case is The University of Virginia Health Services Foundation v. Morris, February 2008. http://hamptonroads.com/node/456013