Respondeat superior in medicine and public health practice: The question is – Who is accountable for whom?

Summary In the healthcare context, vicarious liability applies to hospitals, attending physicians and surgeons, resident physicians, and allied hospital staff. The primary research question explored here is the hospital's vicarious liability based on the doctrine of respondeat superior. Today, resident physicians are held at the same standard of care as that of their attending physicians. They are theoretically accountable for their own acts or omissions. However, in surgery, the attending surgeon – not the hospital or resident – is vicariously liable for acts or omissions of the surgical residents. Correspondingly, courts have held hospitals accountable for independent contractors on three grounds of apparent agency, control test, and non-delegable duty of the hospital for patient care. Interestingly, with anesthesia identified as an independent specialty, which is separate and distinct from surgery, the anesthetist and not the attending surgeon is primarily accountable for anesthesia administered to the patient. Conclusively, the paper offers interesting perceptions and tangents of why the hospital, surgeon, and anesthetist are accountable for the acts and omissions of their subordinates under vicarious liability arising from the doctrine of respondeat superior with support of American and English case laws as examples.