Charitable Immunity Laws for Medical Volunteers
The Discovery Rule and Medical Malpractice
It is a known risk of therapy that a patient who is troubled, vulnerable, or suggestible may become overly attached to the therapist and may consent to sexual contact. This attachment to a therapist is so well known that it has been given a title. "Transference" describes a situation where a patient displaces feelings about another person and redirects them towards the therapist. Transference, while a normal and often important part of the therapeutic process, carries with it a great potential for abuse by the therapist.
National Practitioner Data Bank
Generally, most medical malpractice cases are tort actions based on the existence of a physician's duty to a patient, a breach of that duty, and injury to the patient as a result of the breach. Most healthcare providers do not promise a cure nor guarantee the best possible result. However, an individual physician may open him or herself up to a breach of contract action based on the provision of medical services resulting from a bad medical result if the physician has bound himself to cure the patient or to obtain specific results.