Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in New York
doctor claims no formal agreement to treat
Dr. M (surgeon) provided informal (psychiatric-like) counseling for a volunteer employee, Nurse C, following her divorce.
The counseling took place on a regular basis. There was never any charge to nurse C, except, Dr. M asked nurse C to donate money (if she could) to Dr M's research fund.
Dr M never took any notes, nor did he keep any records of the visits between himself and nurse C.
Nurse C invested over $30,000.00-dollars into Dr. M's research fund over the four year period.
When nurse C ran out of money--Dr M wanted to get rid of her and wrote a letter to the hospital manager stating nurse C was unstable and must be suffering from some sort of breakdown. He also reported that he had observed nurse C to have personality problems.
Nurse C was discharged from her volunteer position following this letter. In a letter to nurse C, Dr M said that even though nurse C had spent over thirty-thousand dollars of her own funds, it went into her own research. Moreover, Dr M said in the letter that he provided her with over 150 hours of guidance and counsel and since his time was worth well over 200-dollars per hour, she in fact got "her monies worth"
Nurse C now wants to sue for malpractice stating Dr M provided less than standard psychiatric treatment and broke confidentiality laws. Dr M said he never agreed to treat her and was only giving friendly not professional--advice.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Informal counseling
I'm not sure what your question is.
But my guess would be that the existence of a doctor/patient relationship and the duties which are assumed by the doctor are more likely to be shaped by the reality of the relationship, rather than the formalities (i.e., whether a ledger or chart was kept). Certainly, payment is not required. Same deal about attorney/client relationships, which is why we attorneys always use disclaimers which people reading these messages should take seriously.
Nurse C should consult with an attorney in the state where the treatment took place. I suspect that the real issues are whether the doc did anything wrong which damaged her, and the message doesn't really give any basis to make that detemrination. Of course, for reasons of confidentiality and competence, such a decision should only be made by her own attorney.
The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.
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