MN Supreme Court decision means doctors can be sued by patients they don’t see

But in this case, Warren v. Dinter , the court held that a hospitalist [1] who refuses to admit a patient to the hospital may be sued for causing the death of the patient even though the hospitalist never laid eyes on the patient. After hearing Simon’s summary of Warren’s symptoms, Dr. Dinter declared her symptoms were due to “a diabetes that’s out of control” (as the Court of Appeals put it) and recommended that Simon send her home with some diabetes medication, and schedule a follow-up visit for next Monday, three days later. Dinter and Fairview argued to the trial court that Justin Warren could not sue Dr. Dinter and Fairview because Dinter was not in a physician-patient relationship with Ms. Warren at the time he refused to admit her.

Source: thedeductible.com