Textbook: The Law of Healthcare Administration, Ninth Edition
Author J. Stuart Showalter
On page 269 of your textbook is the court case of Johnson v.
Misericordia Community Hospital. This case involves alleged negligent surgery performed on
Mr. Johnson by Dr. Salinsky at Misericordia Community Hospital in July 1975.
Read the case study thoroughly and then using the framework below,
answer each of the questions.
Procedure.
Who are the parties? Who brought the action? In what court did the
case originate? Who won at the trial-court level? What is the appellate
history of the case?
Facts.
What are the relevant facts as recited by this court? Are there any facts
that you would like to know but that are not revealed in the opinion?
Issues.
What are the precise issues being litigated, as stated by the court? Do
you agree with the way the court has framed those issues?
Holding.
What is the court’s precise holding (decision)? What is its
rationale for that decision? Do you agree with that rationale?
Implications.
What does the case mean for healthcare today? What were its
implications when the decision was announced? How should healthcare
administrators prepare to deal with these implications? What would
be different today if the case had been decided differently?
The last part of the case study assignment is to answer the
questions on page 273.
Discussion Questions
In the opening paragraph of his classic 1881 treatise The Common
Law, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote: “The life of the law has not been logic:
it has been experienced. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral
and political theories, institutions of public policy, avowed or unconscious,
even the prejudices which judges share with their fellowmen, have had a good
deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should
be governed.” How is this case an example of the truth of this passage?
Do you agree with the court’s rationale? What would have been the
implications of the opposite result?
Do you agree with the court’s statement on how the public
perceives a modern hospital today? What evidence is there to support this statement?
Does this decision mean that a hospital will be liable for every
incident of malpractice committed by nonemployee members of its medical staff?
Why or why not?
