Posted by Nancy on March 26, 1998 at 15:24:12:
#1 Good Samaritan Law- Most states have enacted some form of the law prohibiting a patient from suing a physician or other health care professionals for injuries from a volunteer act. The act must be done without there being any duty to care for the patient and without any expectation of compensation. Two conditions must be satisfied. It must be a volunteer action and the actions must be good faith effort tom help. Of course the classic example would be a physician sho stopos to render aid to vicfims of an accident as a volunteer act. If however, he send them a bill for emergency services, this is no longer a good samaritan actions. Most good samaritan acts happen outside the hospital, however, there was a fairly recent decision from the Oklahoma Supreme court where a physician aided a visitor who fainted during the birth of his child. The man was checked for injury anad then seated on a bed while the childbirth proceeded. He fell off the bed, was injured and sued the medical personnel. The court held that the physician-pt. relationship was with the wife and child and that the Good Samaritan statue applied to the physician and others who attended the father during his fainting episode. No gross negligence was alledged so the GSS protected them from liability even though the event occured in a hospital.
Athletic trainers and other who help give first aid at amateur sporting eevents are specially protected as Good Samaritans.
#2 Professional Courtesy: After asking several docs I work with, they all agreed that the professional courtesy thing was at the disgression of the person giving it. They could think of no situation where it was prohibited or restricted. Our docs give them out fairly common to not only employees, but people with no insurance.