OGH: Zur Reichweite der ärztlichen Überprüfungspflicht bei der mündlichen Anordnung einer Medikamentenvorbereitung in einer außergewöhnlichen Notsituation.

The article deals with the medical obligation to verify the oral order of medication preparation in an emergency situation. It is stated that a registered nurse can independently prepare a medically ordered injection and generally does not need to be verified by a doctor. However, the doctor is obliged to check the prepared medications if the label on the ampoule deviates from the instruction. The article also describes a specific case in which a wrong administration of medication occurred due to misunderstandings in communication. The court ruled that the doctor had violated her duty to control, but the dismissal was not justified as it was a one-time mistake and the doctor had not received a warning before. However, the appellate court ruled differently and dismissed the lawsuit, as the error was classified as grossly negligent. The plaintiff filed an extraordinary appeal, which was deemed admissible and justified by the Supreme Court. It was determined that the doctor did not have a supervisory duty towards the nurse, as she acted independently as a registered nurse. The Higher Regional Court of Graz considered the dismissal justified, while the Supreme Court (OGH) granted the doctor's claims in its decision of August 31, 2022, 9 Ob A 75/22b. The OGH argued that the doctor's one-time mistake in an emergency situation was not so serious that the continuation of the employment relationship would be unreasonable. The doctor had not made similar mistakes before and had never been warned for misconduct. The OGH relied on the relevant legal bases, in particular § 15 GuKG and § 49 ÄrzteG, as well as on relevant case law and literature. The general dimension of the text deals with the importance of quality-assuring communication. It is emphasized that incidents like the disputed case mentioned in the text should lead to appropriate measures through functioning quality assurance systems. These measures could include regular clarifications about communication behavior and a verifying control according to the "check and re-check" system, for example. The goal is to avoid similar sources of errors and optimize patient safety. [Extracted from the article]