Hawaii Hospital Must Face Trial for Patient’s Aspiration Death

A Hawaii hospital’s vicarious liability for two residents’ alleged negligence, leading to a patient’s aspiration pneumonia, must be decided by a jury, as there’s a fact question about whether the doctors-in-training were hospital employees, a federal court said.

An agreement between Queens Medical Center and the University of Hawaii identified the residents as employees of a third entity, Hawaii Residency Programs Inc., the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii said.

But other evidence indicated that Queens exercised supervisory authority over the residents, the court said. Under Hawaii law, an employer can be held vicariously liable for its employees’ ...