SCAHRM’s 37th Annual Educational Seminar was held on May 3-5, 2017 in Rancho Mirage, California. Haight Partners Angela S. Haskins spoke on a panel entitled, “The Evolution of Medical Negligence.”
The program discussed the history and evolution of the case law arising from the plaintiffs’ bar’s efforts to chip away at the MICRA protection afforded by characterizing claims as general negligence and/or premises liability. The cases leading up to the Supreme Court decision in Flores v. Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (2016) 63 Cal.4th 75 had been further convoluting how a trial court should consider the facts of a claim in this regard. Nava v. Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, et. al. (Case No. G052218) is one of the first Opinions by a Court of Appeal to cite and rely upon the California Supreme Court’s holding in Flores, and to adopt the Court’s language, “integrally related” in the context of determining application of the medical negligence statute of limitations, Code of Civil Procedure §340.5. Pre-Flores cases regarding the meaning of medical negligence for purposes of the applicable statute of limitations no longer govern, thereby creating a major shift from prior precedent and a new beginning on the characterization of claims against healthcare providers in future cases.