What is vicarious liability? Laura Blundell gives us the background and explains why it’s so important to ensure you have appropriate indemnity.
By now, most clinicians may well have heard the term ‘vicarious liability’ being used within the dental industry. But what does it actually mean and why is it relevant?
Simply, practice owners can be held liable for the actions of employed or self-employed staff. This is regardless of whether they’ve been involved in the treatment of the patient.
Resultantly, claims can be brought against the practice owner instead of, or as well as, the treating clinician.
Practical tips for practice owners
As a practice owner, or someone who might be considering purchasing a practice, it is key to be well-informed and have appropriate indemnity in place. This will protect you against vicarious liability claims.
Here are some practical tips:
- Talk to your broker – tell them where you need to protect your business and ask them what extensions of cover are available
- Fully declare all staff members – employed staff (usually nurses and hygienists) are often well-considered, but claims can also be brought against the practice in respect to work undertaken by self-employed associates (usually dentists)
- Know your staff and their indemnity policies – don’t rely on the assumption that all staff carry their own adequate indemnity. Do they have appropriate limits of indemnity, for example? Be mindful that the mutual societies provide discretionary indemnity, which can be withdrawn at any time. As these bodies are unregulated, rights of appeal are limited. In events where the treating clinician’s policy fails to respond, it’s more likely that vicarious liability claims will be directed at the practice
- Consider your associate agreements – at Densura, we increasingly see associate agreements including clauses that allow the practice owner to recover costs that they incur in connection with treatment (often negligent) provided by their self-employed staff
- Notify in a timely manner – to ensure support from your indemnity provider, notify all incidents, complaints and claims at the earliest possible opportunity.
How Densura can help
At Densura, we can extend your policy to include cover for vicarious liability claims directed at you or your practice.
Cover is contractual and you can be sure that the policy will respond in the event of a valid claim.
As a Densura policy holder with a vicarious liability extension, if the associates within your practice are (or were) also indemnified by Densura, you will be even better protected.
For example, if an associate no longer resides in the UK but was indemnified by Densura at the time the alleged negligence took place, you will still be fully protected. This is subject to a robust associate agreement containing an effective indemnity clause.
Densura will internally handle the claim. It will apportion the legal and settlement costs against the treating clinician’s policy and not your own.
This option is unlikely available if the clinicians have been indemnified elsewhere. Many mutual organisations will not respond to a claim if they are not instructed to by their member.
In this event, the claimant will continue to pursue the practice owner, damaging your claims experience and future premiums.
To best protect your patients and assets, consider Densura as your indemnifier.
For more information visit www.densura.com.
