Sterling v. Johns Hopkins Hosp.,
No. 398, Sept. Term, 2001 (Md. Spec. App. July 1, 2002)

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant hospital, when the estate of a deceased patient sued the hospital, alleging negligence and malpractice in the diagnosis and treatment of complications surrounding her pregnancy. The hospital claimed that summary judgment was appropriate because its representative physician, who accepted the call from the decedent's primary physician at the transferring hospital, did not have a physician/patient relationship with the decedent.

After an extensive discussion of the formation of a physician-patient relationship where there is no direct contact with the patient, the Court of Special Appeals determined that, under these facts, a physician-patient relationship had not been established between its representative attending physician and decedent. Although recognizing that a physician-patient relationship may arise by implication where the doctor takes affirmative action to participate in the care and treatment of a patient, "where the treating physician exercises his or her own independent judgment in determining whether to accept or reject [a consultant's] advice...the consultative physician should not be regarded as a joint provider of medical services with respect to the patient."

Because decedent's primary physician at the transferring hospital had direct contact with the decedent and could override anything the defendant hospital's representative advised, a physician-patient relationship was not established between the hospital and decedent. Consequently, the hospital owed no duty of care to decedent and plaintiffs could not recover on a claim for malpractice.