The hospital’s medical expert’s affidavit stated the hospital’s nurses fulfilled the standard of care by relying on the physician’s assessment of the appropriateness of discharging the patient and by following the physician’s order.  COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA July 30, 2018

  An adult patient was admitted to the hospital as a transfer from another hospital to whose emergency department she had gone following a fall at home.  A head CT at the first hospital revealed a traumatic brain bleed.  At the second hospital a physical therapist determined the patient was safe in terms of her mobility issues to be discharged home.  A physician ordered her discharged.  The discharge diagnoses were subarachnoid and intraparenchymal brain hemorrhages secondary to a fall.  The hospital’s nurses carried out the physician’s discharge order.

  Early the next morning the patient died at her parents’ home from intracerebral bleeding.  The Court of Appeal of California upheld a summary judgment of dismissal in the hospital’s favor, finding no negligence by the hospital’s nurses.