§ 84.0065.Organization Liability of Hospitals

The hospital provision, and its cap is structured differently from the general organization cap.

In a civil action against a hospital or hospital system, or its employees, officers, directors, or volunteers, the liability of the hospital or system is limited to money damages in a maximum amount of $500,000 for an act or omission resulting in death, damage, or injury to a patient — conditioned on a signed acknowledgment that the hospital is providing care that is not administered for or in expectation of compensation and of the limitations on the recovery of damages.

A single figure rather than a per-person and per-occurrence pair, which distinguishes it from the general organization cap.

The acknowledgment condition is the same one the volunteer health care provider immunity uses, and it identifies the situation the section covers: charity care, given without expectation of payment, where the patient has been told the terms.

Subsection (b) supplies the same necessary exception. The cap applies even if the patient is incapacitated due to illness or injury and cannot sign, or is a minor or otherwise legally incompetent and the responsible person is not reasonably available.

Without it, the protection would fail precisely where charity care is most often given — to an unconscious patient in an emergency.

The section is subject to the applicability provision, so it does not reach intentional, wilfully negligent, or consciously indifferent conduct. "Hospital system" is defined in the chapter as a system of hospitals and other providers under common governance or control of a corporate parent.