The Emerging Trend of Corporate Liability: Courts\u27 Uneven Treatment of Hospital Standards Leaves Hospitals Uncertain and Exposed

Under the doctrine of hospital corporate liability, a hospital has a nondelegable, direct duty to provide adequate care to all of its patients.\u27 This duty is not a product of a master-servant or a principal-agent relationship, nor is hospital tort liability predicated on a showing of vicarious liability, because the hospital\u27s liability flows directly from the hospital to its patients. Consequently, a hospital may be liable for the negligent act of an independent staff physician, even if that physician is an independent contractor. The corporate liability, or corporate negligence, doctrine thus extends potential liability beyond the sphere of respondeat superior. Although many courts have recognized corporate liability as an emerging trend throughout the country, reviewing courts should consider carefully the reasons supporting the doctrine and the ways in which many courts now apply it. As health care issues play an increasingly greater role in American society, courts have a greater obligation to apply articulable guidelines uniformly when determining hospital liability. Unfortunately, despite the courts\u27 ability to rectify the existing uncertainty, they have treated corporate liability disparately thus far. The corporate liability doctrine has a useful and practical application but only when applied in limited and clearly defined circumstances. Part II of this Note discusses hospitals\u27 evolution into modern, health-care providing entities. An examination of the emergence of the modern hospital as a corporate institution provides the framework for the creation and application of the corporate liability doctrine. Part III examines the doctrine of corporate liability as a response to the significant changes in the modern hospital, discussing and analyzing the duties that the major cases have articulated and imposed. Part IV discusses the evolution of hospital liability from the exposure-free beginnings of charitable immunity through the present- day imposition of corporate liability. Part V analyzes the standards and guidelines courts may consider in determining the imposition of hospital corporate liability. This Part primarily explores the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) guidelines as a source that courts may use to assess potential hospital corporate liability. Part VI shows that the courts have not applied the standards uniformly or consistently, primarily because they have relied on different standards at different times or have applied the same set of standards inconsistently. Thus, courts irresponsibly have allowed the corporate liability doctrine to remain imprecisely defined, leaving hospitals exposed to almost limitless liability without the reasonable ability to take preventive measures. Finally, Part VII suggests a more effective method for assessing hospital liability, allowing courts to apply the standards more evenly

Integrated digital/electric aircraft concepts study

The integrated digital/electrical aircraft (IDEA) is an aircraft concept which employs all electric secondary power systems and advanced digital flight control systems. After trade analysis, preferred systems were applied to the baseline configuration. An additional configuration, the alternate IDEA, was also considered. For this concept the design ground rules were relaxed in order to quantify additional synergistic benefits. It was proposed that an IDEA configuration and technical risks associated with the IDEA systems concepts be defined and the research and development required activities to reduce these risks be identified. The selected subsystems include: power generation, power distribution, actuators, environmental control system and flight controls systems. When the aircraft was resized, block fuel was predicted to decrease by 11.3 percent, with 7.9 percent decrease in direct operating cost. The alternate IDEA shows a further 3.4 percent reduction in block fuel and 3.1 percent reduction in direct operating cost

Analysis of Prescriptions of Alpha-Blockers and Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors from the Urology Department and Other Departments

PurposeWe analyzed the prescriptions of alpha-blockers and phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5Is) in the urology department as well as in other departments of the general hospital.MethodsWe investigated the frequency of prescription of alpha-blockers and PDE5Is from 3 general hospitals from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009. For alpha-blockers, data were collected from patients to whom alpha-blockers were prescribed from among patients recorded as having benign prostatic hyperplasia according to the 5th Korean Standard Classification of Diseases. For PDE5Is, data were collected from patients to whom PDE5Is were prescribed by the urology department and by other departments. Alpha-blockers were classified into tamsulosin, alfuzosin, doxazosin, and terazosin, whereas PDE5Is were classified into sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, udenafil, and mirodenafil.ResultsAlpha-blockers were prescribed to 11,436 patients in total over 3 years, and the total frequency of prescriptions was 68,565. Among other departments, the nephrology department had the highest frequency of prescription of 3,225 (4.7%), followed by the cardiology (3,101, 4.5%), neurology (2,576, 3.8%), endocrinology (2,400, 3.5%), pulmonology (1,102, 1.6%), and family medicine (915, 1.3%) departments in order. PDE5Is were prescribed to 2,854 patients in total over 3 years, and the total frequency of prescriptions was 10,558. The prescription frequency from the urology department was 4,900 (46.4%). Among other departments, the endocrinology department showed the highest prescription frequency of 3,488 (33.0%), followed by the neurology (542, 5.1%), cardiology (467, 4.4%), and family medicine (407, 3.9%) departments in order.ConclusionsA high percentage of prescriptions of alpha-blockers and PDE5Is were from other departments. For more specialized medical care by urologists is required in the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms and erectile dysfunction

BLUE: A TWO-ACT PLAY

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts - Englis

Aspiration Strategies In Competitive And Non-Competitive Situations In Depression

Die Entwicklung der katholischen Soziallehre von "Rerum novarum" bis "Laborem exercens" aus katholischer Sicht. - In: Kirche und Wirtschaft. - Melle : Knoth, 1983. - S. 19-27. - (Forschungsbericht / Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung ; 26