§ 74.154.Jury Instructions in Cases Involving Emergency Medical Care

A mandatory jury instruction that sits alongside the heightened emergency standard.

In an action involving a claim of negligence arising from emergency medical care in a hospital emergency department or obstetrical unit, or in a surgical suite immediately following emergency department evaluation, the court shall instruct the jury to consider, together with all other relevant matters:

(1) whether the person providing care did or did not have the patient's medical history or was able or unable to obtain a full medical history, including preexisting conditions, allergies, and medications; (2) the presence or lack of a preexisting physician-patient or provider-patient relationship; (3) the circumstances constituting the emergency; and (4) the circumstances surrounding the delivery of the emergency medical care.

The first two are the substance. A jury assessing an emergency physician naturally compares them to a treating doctor who knows the patient. The instruction directs attention to what the emergency physician did not have: the history, the allergies, the medication list, and any prior relationship.

Subsection (b) tracks the boundaries of the heightened standard, with one addition. The instruction does not apply to care after stabilisation, care unrelated to the original emergency, or care related to an emergency caused in whole or in part by the negligence of the defendant.

The two sections work together: one sets the standard of proof, the other tells the jury what context to weigh in applying it.