Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

on relinquishing care and follow-up should be followed as if the physician were
licensed. Most state licensing laws explicitly allow for emergency care by
nonlicensed personnel, and no state would prosecute a physician for volunteering
emergency medical care.
5. Good Samaritan Laws
There is a widespread myth that physicians will be sued for a poor outcome if they
stop to help a stranger in need. Despite the reality that no physician has ever lost a
suit over a Good Samaritan act, it is hard for most physicians and nurses to believe
that physicians do not get sued for volunteering medical care. Millions of people
watched Dr. Kildare lose a suit for helping at the scene of an accident. Every
physician has heard a story over coffee about some other physician who got sued. It
may have happened to Dr. Kildare, but it has not happened to any real doctors. There
have been many cases filed in which poor care was rendered in an emergency, but
they were cases where the physician had a duty to treat that patient, not cases of
volunteer care. Even before the enactment of Good Samaritan laws, there was a
common law protection and a social policy against such suits. Unfortunately, the
myth persists because it is an excuse for some physicians who refuse to
inconvenience themselves by helping others in emergencies.
Because of the pervasive myth of liability in the medical professions, most states
have enacted some form of Good Samaritan law prohibiting a patient from suing a
physician or other medical care professional for injuries from a Good Samaritan act.
To trigger the protection of such an act, two conditions must be satisfied: it must be a
volunteer act, and the actions must be a good-faith effort to help. Displacing a neck
fracture in an effort to do rescue breathing might be malpractice in the emergency
room, but it is not bad faith on the roadside. Trying an unnecessary tracheostomy just
for the practice would be bad faith.
The legal problem with Good Samaritan laws is that they were unnecessary. If the
common law was a perfect protection against a Good Samaritan lawsuit, then
specific Good Samaritan legislation cannot improve the situation. Conversely, by
passing statutes, legislatures encourage attorneys to look for loopholes. An attorney
who can find a way to convince a jury that a physician was not covered by the Good
Samaritan law may be tempted to sue.
In the medical sense, a Good Samaritan is a medical care professional who
volunteers to help someone in need of emergency medical care. The act must be done
without there being any duty to care for the patient and without any expectation of
compensation. The classic case is the physician who comes upon the scene of a car
accident. A physician who stops and renders aid to the victims of the accident has
acted as a Good Samaritan. If the physician later sends a bill for the emergency
services, this is no longer a Good Samaritan action. If the victims spontaneously send
the physician a dozen roses as a thank-you gift, this does not affect the voluntary
nature of the act.
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