Garrett v. Lynch, ARNP, Sarasota Pain Management, et al.
The Second DCA affirmed summary judgment for an ARNP and her employer pain clinic in a medical malpractice wrongful death action, holding that the provider-patient duty of care terminated when the patient voluntarily discharged the defendants, and that no post-discharge duty arose under section 766.102 or Florida common law. The court further held proximate cause was severed by the patient's own refusal of substitute medications, his consultation with five-plus intervening physicians, and the passage of more than ninety days before his suicide. For civil practitioners the opinion provides clear authority that a voluntarily initiated discharge ends the relational duty in healthcare malpractice and that robust intervening patient conduct defeats proximate causation at the summary judgment stage.
Key facts
- Wyatt Garrett, a Desert Storm veteran with chronic back pain from a deployment injury and two failed surgeries, had been prescribed fentanyl products — a Duragesic transdermal patch and an Actiq lozenge (an off-label use requiring TIRF REMS certification) — at Sarasota Pain Management for more than ten years without incident.
- After the practice's owner, Dr. Chun (later convicted of receiving kickbacks related to a separate fentanyl product), sold the clinic to PPOA, incoming physician Dr. Adams — who was not TIRF REMS certified — directed Lynch to inform Garrett that his Actiq prescription would be changed; Garrett terminated the doctor-patient relationship at the January 11, 2019 appointment.
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Holdings
- A physician's duty to a patient is explicitly relational and terminates when the patient voluntarily discharges the provider; the duty does not survive the end of the patient-provider…
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