Van Horn v. Chambers

in which PHILLIPS, Chief Justice, HECHT, ENOCH, SPECTOR, OWEN, BAKER and HANKINSON, Justices, joined.

The motion for rehearing is overruled. Our opinion of May 8,1998, is withdrawn and the following is substituted in its place.

The issue in this ease is what duty a physician owes to third parties outside the physician-patient relationship. Two hospital employees were killed and a fellow employee injured while trying to subdue a violent patient. The episode occurred after an attending physician transferred the patient from the neurological critical care unit to a private room on an unsecured…