CIVIL PRACTICE AND REMEDIES CODE

TITLE 4. LIABILITY IN TORT

CHAPTER 74. MEDICAL LIABILITY

SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 74.001. DEFINITIONS. (a) In this chapter:

(1) "Affiliate" means a person who, directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with a specified person, including any direct or indirect parent or subsidiary.

(2) "Claimant" means a person, including a decedent's estate, seeking or who has sought recovery of damages in a health care liability claim. All persons claiming to have sustained damages as the result of the bodily injury or death of a single person are considered a single claimant.

(3) "Control" means the possession, directly or indirectly, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of the person, whether through ownership of equity or securities, by contract, or otherwise.

(4) "Court" means any federal or state court.

(5) "Disclosure panel" means the Texas Medical Disclosure Panel.

(6) "Economic damages" has the meaning assigned by Section 41.001.

(7) "Emergency medical care" means bona fide emergency services provided after the sudden onset of a medical or traumatic condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in placing the patient's health in serious jeopardy, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. The term does not include medical care or treatment that occurs after the patient is stabilized and is capable of receiving medical treatment as a nonemergency patient or that is unrelated to the original medical emergency.

(8) "Emergency medical services provider" means a licensed public or private provider to which Chapter 773, Health and Safety Code, applies.

(9) "Gross negligence" has the meaning assigned by Section 41.001.

(10) "Health care" means any act or treatment performed or furnished, or that should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's medical care, treatment, or confinement.

(11) "Health care institution" includes:

(A) an ambulatory surgical center;

(B) an assisted living facility licensed under Chapter 247, Health and Safety Code;

(C) an emergency medical services provider;

(D) a health services district created under Chapter 287, Health and Safety Code;

(E) a home and community support services agency;

(F) a hospice;

(G) a hospital;

(H) a hospital system;

(I) an intermediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability or a home and community-based services waiver program for individuals with an intellectual disability adopted in accordance with Section 1915(c) of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Section 1396n), as amended;

(J) a nursing home; or

(K) an end stage renal disease facility licensed under Section 251.011, Health and Safety Code.

(12)(A) "Health care provider" means any person, partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or institution duly licensed, certified, registered, or chartered by the State of Texas to provide health care, including:

(i) a registered nurse;

(ii) a dentist;

(iii) a podiatrist;

(iv) a pharmacist;

(v) a chiropractor;

(vi) an optometrist;

(vii) a health care institution; or

(viii) a health care collaborative certified under Chapter 848, Insurance Code.

(B) The term includes:

(i) an officer, director, shareholder, member, partner, manager, owner, or affiliate of a health care provider or physician; and

(ii) an employee, independent contractor, or agent of a health care provider or physician acting in the course and scope of the employment or contractual relationship.

(13) "Health care liability claim" means a cause of action against a health care provider or physician for treatment, lack of treatment, or other claimed departure from accepted standards of medical care, or health care, or safety or professional or administrative services directly related to health care, which proximately results in injury to or death of a claimant, whether the claimant's claim or cause of action sounds in tort or contract. The term does not include a cause of action described by Section 406.033(a) or 408.001(b), Labor Code, against an employer by an employee or the employee's surviving spouse or heir.

(14) "Home and community support services agency" means a licensed public or provider agency to which Chapter 142, Health and Safety Code, applies.

(15) "Hospice" means a hospice facility or activity to which Chapter 142, Health and Safety Code, applies.

(16) "Hospital" means a licensed public or private institution as defined in Chapter 241, Health and Safety Code, or licensed under Chapter 577, Health and Safety Code.

(17) "Hospital system" means a system of hospitals located in this state that are under the common governance or control of a corporate parent.

(18) "Intermediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability" means a licensed public or private institution to which Chapter 252, Health and Safety Code, applies.

(19) "Medical care" means any act defined as practicing medicine under Section 151.002, Occupations Code, performed or furnished, or which should have been performed, by one licensed to practice medicine in this state for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's care, treatment, or confinement.

(20) "Noneconomic damages" has the meaning assigned by Section 41.001.

(21) "Nursing home" means a licensed public or private institution to which Chapter 242, Health and Safety Code, applies.

(22) "Pharmacist" means one licensed under Chapter 551, Occupations Code, who, for the purposes of this chapter, performs those activities limited to the dispensing of prescription medicines which result in health care liability claims and does not include any other cause of action that may exist at common law against them, including but not limited to causes of action for the sale of mishandled or defective products.

(23) "Physician" means:

(A) an individual licensed to practice medicine in this state;

(B) a professional association organized under the Texas Professional Association Act (Article 1528f, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) by an individual physician or group of physicians;

(C) a partnership or limited liability partnership formed by a group of physicians;

(D) a nonprofit health corporation certified under Section 162.001, Occupations Code; or

(E) a company formed by a group of physicians under the Texas Limited Liability Company Act (Article 1528n, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).

(24) "Professional or administrative services" means those duties or services that a physician or health care provider is required to provide as a condition of maintaining the physician's or health care provider's license, accreditation status, or certification to participate in state or federal health care programs.

(25) "Representative" means the spouse, parent, guardian, trustee, authorized attorney, or other authorized legal agent of the patient or claimant.

(b) Any legal term or word of art used in this chapter, not otherwise defined in this chapter, shall have such meaning as is consistent with the common law.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 204, Sec. 10.01, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.

Amended by:

Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 7 (S.B. 7), Sec. 4.02, eff. September 28, 2011.

Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 728 (H.B. 1403), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2015.

Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 30 (H.B. 446), Sec. 1.01, eff. September 1, 2023.