Malpractice in health care teams

To be successful, modern medical acts require the participation of several professionals and assistants and, as such, there has been a steady trend from individual medicine to the collective practice of the profession. This format raises issues in determining when a medical professional or other practitioner is liable for the acts of a colleague. This thesis proposes to resolve the problems involved in the collective practice of medicine by restricting liability to a physician responsible for another practitioner, only to those cases where he/she has been willingly introduced into the medical act. (Rev Med Chile 2011; 139: 667-671).