Jacksonville · Emergency and trauma care
Emergency room and trauma care claims in Jacksonville
Emergency care is judged by a different standard for a limited time (opens in a new tab), and the doctor in an emergency room is not always the hospital’s employee. This page sets out the standard, where it stops, and who answers for the care.
The short answer
How is emergency room care judged in a Florida malpractice claim?
By a higher bar than ordinary negligence, for a limited time. A hospital or other provider giving emergency services that federal or Florida law requires it to give is not liable unless the care was given, or withheld, under circumstances demonstrating a reckless disregard for the consequences (opens in a new tab). The statute defines that as conduct the provider knew or should have known created an unreasonable risk of injury, a risk substantially greater than that which is necessary to make the conduct negligent (opens in a new tab). That standard applies to care, including diagnosis, given before the patient is stabilized and is capable of receiving medical treatment as a nonemergency patient (opens in a new tab) and related to the original emergency.
What does reckless disregard mean, and where does the rule stop?
The rule sits in Florida’s Good Samaritan Act. The name suggests a passer-by, but this part of it covers any health care provider, including a hospital (opens in a new tab).
The definition reaches what a provider knew or should have known (opens in a new tab), so actual knowledge is not required.
The rule ends at stabilization, as set out above, and surgery can extend it. Where surgery is required as a result of the emergency within a reasonable time after the patient is stabilized, it applies until the patient is stabilized following the surgery (opens in a new tab). It covers only care related to the original medical emergency (opens in a new tab). Care outside those limits is not covered.
What does federal law require of an emergency room?
Under federal law a hospital with a Medicare provider agreement must provide for an appropriate medical screening examination within the capability of the hospital’s emergency department (opens in a new tab) when a person comes to that department and examination or treatment is requested.
If the hospital determines that the person has an emergency medical condition, it must provide such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition (opens in a new tab), within the staff and facilities it has, or transfer the person as the statute allows.
A person harmed as a direct result of a violation can bring a civil action against the participating hospital (opens in a new tab), for the personal injury damages available under the law of the hospital’s state. The hospital is the only defendant that provision names.
Which trauma centers does the State list in Duval County?
The Florida Department of Health’s list, updated July 23, 2026, shows three trauma centers in Duval County: UF Health Jacksonville, a Level I center, HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, a Level II center, and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, a pediatric center (opens in a new tab).
The State’s records show HCA Florida Memorial Hospital licensed to Memorial Healthcare Group, Inc. (opens in a new tab) and Wolfson Children’s Hospital to Southern Baptist Hospital of Florida, Inc. (opens in a new tab)
UF Health Jacksonville has a third licensee and its own page, university hospital care, because the rules differ.
Who answers for the emergency room doctor?
The doctor who treats you in an emergency room may not be the hospital’s employee. For a doctor the hospital does not employ, a Florida appellate court said in 2022 that the hospital is generally not liable unless the physician is an actual or apparent agent of the hospital, a statute, regulation or contract creates a duty that cannot be delegated, or the hospital failed to exercise due care in selecting the physician (opens in a new tab).
One question has divided the courts. Florida’s appellate districts have split on whether a hospital has a duty it cannot delegate for emergency room or anesthesia care by independent physicians, and one of them certified the conflict in 2019 (opens in a new tab). Appeals from Duval County go to the Fifth District Court of Appeal (opens in a new tab), and which earlier decisions bind a Jacksonville court is a question for an attorney.
Wolfson Children’s Hospital says Emergency Resources Group (ERG) is a physician-led practice that provides emergency medicine staffing and clinical expertise in Baptist Health and Wolfson Children’s emergency centers (opens in a new tab). That is the hospital’s own description, and it states no employment relationship in legal terms.
Where is a case from here filed?
Duval County, with Clay and Nassau counties, makes up Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab). A case against a person is generally brought in the county where the defendant resides or where the cause of action accrued (opens in a new tab), and a case against a Florida corporation in a county where the corporation has, or usually keeps, an office for its customary business, or where the cause of action accrued (opens in a new tab).
A free-standing emergency room is listed on a hospital’s license in the State’s records, and it may be in another county. HCA Florida Memorial Hospital’s license lists six, three of them in St. Johns and Nassau counties (opens in a new tab), and Baptist Medical Center South’s lists two, both in St. Johns County (opens in a new tab).
St. Johns County is in the Seventh Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab). So the hospital a room belongs to and its county both have to be established. The page on Duval County courts and deadlines covers the court itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter that I did not choose the doctor?
It can. Apparent agency is decided case by case. A 2021 appellate decision requires a representation by the hospital, reliance on it by the patient, and a change in position (opens in a new tab), and says a hospital may still be liable where the patient had no choice of physician (opens in a new tab).
Is there a cap on damages in an emergency care case?
The 2026 statutes still print separate limits on noneconomic damages for emergency care (opens in a new tab). The Florida Supreme Court held the statute’s general caps on noneconomic damages unconstitutional in wrongful death cases in 2014 (opens in a new tab) and in personal injury cases in 2017 (opens in a new tab). Neither opinion rules on the separate limits for emergency care, and neither says whether those limits still apply. A claim under the government claims statute is different again: those limits do not apply to actions governed by the government claims statute (opens in a new tab), as the page on university hospital care explains.
How long do I have to bring a claim?
The lawsuit must be started within 2 years of the incident, or of when it was or should have been discovered, and in no event later than 4 years after the incident (opens in a new tab). The notice of intent must be served within those time limits (opens in a new tab). Where fraud or concealment prevented discovery of the injury, the period runs 2 years from when the injury was or should have been discovered, and in no event beyond 7 years from the incident (opens in a new tab). For a child, the statute says only that the 4-year and 7-year limits do not bar a claim brought on or before the child’s eighth birthday (opens in a new tab), and that clause does not mention the 2-year period. A claim under the federal emergency care law may not be brought more than two years after the date of the violation (opens in a new tab).
What does it cost to have a case reviewed?
Nothing. The case evaluation is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Keep reading
- 01
Florida law
The steps before a lawsuit, the deadlines, what must be proved, what can be recovered, and the rules for government and federal providers.
Florida law page - 02
University hospital care
Who is sued, what can be paid, and the steps before a lawsuit
Explore university hospital care - 03
Military and VA care
A claim that goes to a federal agency first, and how the rules differ by patient
Explore military and VA care - 04
Courts and deadlines
The steps before a lawsuit, in order, then the circuit court, the appeal and the federal court
Explore courts and deadlines