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Ala. Code § 6-5-484

Degree of Care Owed to Patient.

Known as the Alabama Medical Liability Act

The act spans §§ 6-5-480 to 6-5-488 (9 sections).

Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Haney v. Mizell Memorial Hospital (1984)

Most recently applied in 686 F. Supp. 2d 1240 - Hancock v. Hood (February 2010)

(Acts 1975, No. 513, p. 148, §6.)

How often courts cite this section

198119902000201020
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) In performing professional services for a patient, a physician’s, surgeon’s, or dentist’s duty to the patient shall be to exercise such reasonable care, diligence, and skill as physicians, surgeons, and dentists in the same general neighborhood, and in the same general line of practice, ordinarily have and exercise in a like case. In the case of a hospital rendering services to a patient, the hospital must use that degree of care, skill, and diligence used by hospitals generally in the community.

(b) Neither a physician, a surgeon, a dentist nor a hospital shall be considered an insurer of the successful issue of treatment or service.

Official source: Alabama Legislature (ALISON). Reproduced from public-domain Alabama statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.