In any civil action for damages based on professional negligence against a hospital which is licensed by the state of Washington or against the personnel of any such hospital, or against a member of the healing arts including, but not limited to, an acupuncturist or acupuncture and Eastern medicine practitioner licensed under chapter 18.06 RCW, a physician licensed under chapter 18.71 RCW, an osteopathic physician licensed under chapter 18.57 RCW, a chiropractor licensed under chapter 18.25 RCW, a dentist licensed under chapter 18.32 RCW, a podiatric physician and surgeon licensed under chapter 18.22 RCW, or a nurse licensed under chapter 18.79 RCW, the plaintiff in order to prevail shall be required to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant or defendants failed to exercise that degree of skill, care, and learning possessed at that time by other persons in the same profession, and that as a proximate result of such failure the plaintiff suffered damages, but in no event shall the provisions of this section apply to an action based on the failure to obtain the informed consent of a patient.
RCW 4.24.290
Action for damages based on professional negligence of hospitals or members of healing arts—Standard of proof—Evidence—Exception.
Applied in 28 court decisions — leading case 98 Wash. 2d 460 - Harbeson v. Parke-Davis, Inc. (1983)
Most recently applied in 141 Wash. App. 782 - Ambach v. French (November 2007)
2019 c 308 s 15; 2010 c 286 s 12; 1995 c 323 s 2; 1994 sp.s. c 9 s 702; 1985 c 326 s 26; 1983 c 149 s 1; 1975 1st ex.s. c 35 s 1.
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.