Duty to Warn

Duty to Warn Third Parties

There’s no arguing that medical practitioners have a duty to provide reasonable care within the practitioner-patient relationship. What many practitioners don”t realize is that their liability may extend to a third person in the community with no relationship to either the practitioner or the patient. If some act or failure to act within the practitioner-patient relationship causes an unreasonable risk to a third party outside of this relationship, the third party may obtain the right to sue the medical provider. Given the growth in duty to third party case law and the legal climate in the United States, this subject area should be a concern for all practitioners.

In this activity, we educate practitioners about the duty to warn third parties and we present and discuss cases to illustrate the concepts introduced. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: integrate an understanding of the statutes, common law, and ethics that govern the healthcare practitioner’s duty to warn third parties into clinical practice in order to manage cases that involve the potential for danger to third parties outside of the practitioner-patient relationship; identify strategies to warn and protect third parties outside of the practitioner-patient relationship when the third party is in a foreseeable zone of harm from a patient; and apply general ethical guidelines to protect patient confidentiality while balancing the need to protect the public when dealing with a duty to third party situation.

Credit & MOC Details

Credit information is provided by the course provider. We recommend confirming credit eligibility with the provider or your licensing board before starting the activity.

Target Specialties

Case-based learning
Credit · Up to 2 credits
MOC · Up to 2 points
Fee · varies

Released

Oct 12, 2023
Last day to claim credit

Oct 12, 2026 1 day left

Duty to Warn Third Parties

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