WK 2 MHA 622.doc - 1 Respondeat Superior Andrea Schuller...

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Respondeat Superior
Andrea Schuller
MHA 622
February 25, 2019
Professor Park Atatah

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Respondeat Superior
Health care organizations are bound by ethical and moral laws, policies, procedures, and
standard governance. One such doctrine is the Respondeat Superior. This doctrine was created
to protect the legal rights of patients, along with giving them their deserved respect and care
while they recover in a healthcare facility.
As we look further into this doctrine, we would be able to assess, analyze and implement
the information produced from the assessment.
Honoring the legalities of the doctrine will enable organizations to be ethically and
morally responsible and accountable in providing quality care for patients.
Utilizing examples of case studies will enable us to enact real-life scenarios of how the
doctrine was applied and used throughout the case studies, and outcomes.
Introduction
Respondeat Superior is a legal doctrine that is used in cases of tort, which holds the
employer or primary entity legally responsible for the wrongful acts of an employee, facility or
an agent if such acts occur with the scope of the facility, agency or employer.
Usually, when a Respondeat Superior is adduced, the plaintiff initiates a cause to hold
both the employer and the employee liable. Therefore a court will likely look to the doctrine of
joint and several liabilities when assigning legal damages.
As stated in Pozar, G. (2012), “respondeat superior (‘let the master respond’), is a master-
servant relationship that must exist between the employer and the employee, and the wrongful
act of the employee must occur within the scope of his or her employment.”

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However, in litigation processes where the respondeat superior is invoked, often times
there is a query of whether liability rests on the person providing care as an independent agent of
employees of an organization.