Can You Sue a Hospital for Negligence in Texas?

To determine how to sue a hospital in Texas, first identify whether the hospital’s own negligence or an employee’s negligence caused your injury. Texas allows both types of claims, but an independent contractor doctor’s mistake does not ordinarily make the hospital liable.

Under Chapter 74, a hospital is a health care institution. Claims involving treatment, lack of treatment, or safety, professional or administrative services directly related to health care can qualify as health care liability claims. These rules apply when you sue the hospital itself, the same as when you sue a doctor or any other healthcare provider.

Medical negligence is the failure to meet the expected standard of care. To prove a medical malpractice claim against a hospital, a patient generally must show the following elements: a duty of care, a breach of that duty, an injury caused by the breach and resulting damages.

How long do you have to sue a Texas hospital?

Medical malpractice lawsuits against Texas hospitals follow the filing rules in Section 74.251:

• Two-year limit. The statute measures two years from the breach or tort, or from completion of the treatment or hospitalization involved in the claim. The applicable start date depends on the facts; do not assume you can choose whichever date gives you more time.
• Children under 12. The statute provides until the child’s 14th birthday to file a claim.
• Ten-year repose period. The statute also requires filing within 10 years of the act or omission that caused the claim.

Every state sets a statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits, and missing the Texas deadline can end the claim. Public hospitals have additional notice deadlines, discussed below. If you are unsure how much time remains, consult a lawyer promptly to calculate your specific limits. Our guide to Texas filing deadlines explains the timing issues in more detail.

When can you sue a hospital for negligence?

A medical negligence case generally reaches a hospital in one of three ways: the hospital’s own negligence, negligence by its employees, or ostensible agency for a doctor it does not employ.

The hospital’s own negligence

A hospital may be directly responsible when the hospital failed to maintain adequate staffing, equipment, policies or supervision, and that failure breached a duty it owes the patient and caused injury. A direct claim can remain available even when the treating doctor is an independent contractor, as the Texas Supreme Court explained in Sampson.

Credentialing claims concern a hospital’s decision to grant or retain a doctor’s privileges. Under Section 160.010 and the Texas Supreme Court’s Romero decision, a hospital is not liable for improper credentialing through medical peer review unless it acts with malice. Ordinary negligence is insufficient for that claim.

Negligence by hospital employees

A hospital can be liable for negligence by its employees acting within the scope of their jobs. This is called vicarious liability. The employee might be a nurse, technician, therapist or aide, but employment status must be established from the facts before the hospital is held liable on this basis.

Independent contractor doctors and ostensible agency

The Texas Supreme Court’s Sampson decision explains that hospitals ordinarily are not liable for an independent contractor doctor’s negligence. To establish ostensible agency, a patient must show:

• A reasonable belief that the doctor was the hospital’s agent or employee.
• The hospital created that belief by presenting the doctor as its agent or employee, or knowingly allowing the doctor to do so.
• The patient justifiably relied on that representation.

In Sampson, emergency-room signs and a consent form stating that doctors were independent contractors defeated the patient’s ostensible agency claim against the hospital. Keep copies of admission paperwork and consent forms so a lawyer can review what the hospital told you about the doctor’s role before you decide whether to sue the hospital.

Hospital malpractice errors that may support a medical malpractice claim

A poor outcome during medical treatment does not automatically mean medical malpractice occurred. Medical errors and medical mistakes support a claim only when the evidence ties them to the hospital. Depending on the evidence, a claim against the hospital may involve:

• Medication errors by a hospital employee, such as the wrong medication or dose, or a missed scheduled dose.
• Failure to monitor vital signs or respond to alarms as a patient’s condition worsened on a hospital floor or in intensive care.
• Failure to assess fall risk or provide needed supervision or bedrails.
• Pressure sores linked to inadequate turning, repositioning or skin checks.
• Mislabeled specimens, lost test results, or diagnostic tests not acted on in a timely manner, contributing to a delayed diagnosis.
• Surgical errors by hospital-employed staff, such as an incorrect sponge or instrument count during surgery.
• A failure by hospital-employed staff to obtain informed consent before a procedure, where the hospital itself owed that duty.
• An infection linked to contaminated surgical equipment or failures in hospital sterilization procedures.
• Miscommunication between hospital units contributing to premature discharge of an unstable patient.
• Emergency room errors by hospital employees, such as a delayed triage, subject to the emergency care standard discussed below.
• Inadequate staffing, training or safety policies that cause injury.
• Birth injuries, such as a hypoxic brain injury, linked to a hospital employee’s failure to monitor the mother or child during labor.

Each example requires evidence connecting the harm to the hospital’s own conduct or someone for whom it is legally responsible. When you first contact an attorney, document the specific dates, the hospital unit (such as the emergency room, intensive care unit, or operating room), and the roles of the medical staff involved, including doctors, nurses, medical technicians and support staff.

Special rules for emergency room care

For emergency medical care covered by Section 74.153, a patient must prove willful and wanton negligence, a higher standard than ordinary negligence. The rule covers emergency care in a hospital emergency room or emergency department, an obstetrical unit, or a surgical suite immediately following emergency-department evaluation or treatment.

The heightened standard does not apply to care after a patient is stabilized and receiving treatment as a nonemergency patient, or to care unrelated to a medical emergency. It also does not apply to a provider whose negligence causes a stable patient to need emergency care.

The records must establish what care was provided and the patient’s condition at the time. An injury occurring in an emergency room does not, by itself, resolve which standard applies when you sue the hospital. Gross negligence and willful and wanton negligence are legal standards your attorney can evaluate from the records.

Step-by-step: how to sue a hospital in Texas

1. Review the care and preserve evidence

Contact a Texas medical malpractice lawyer who handles hospital cases before taking legal action, to review what happened, your medical records, and whether Chapter 74 applies. Gather your medical records, imaging, medication logs, incident reports if available, photos of injuries, and notes about conversations with nurses, doctors and other medical professionals.

Keep admission forms, discharge instructions and billing records as well. These can help identify the hospital entity and the people involved in your care. Gathering this evidence can be time-consuming and complex, so start as early as possible.

2. Identify the hospital defendant

Determine which legal entity operated the hospital, whether it is public or private, and the basis for holding it responsible. A shared brand or affiliated health system does not by itself establish that every related entity is liable.

A separate claim involving suing a doctor requires its own assessment. For this hospital claim, the investigation should identify direct hospital negligence, employee negligence or facts supporting ostensible agency.

3. Send the required notice

Under Sections 74.051 and 74.052, written notice must go to each health care provider you intend to sue, including the hospital, by certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 60 days before suit. Include the statutory medical authorization form.

Proper notice tolls the limitations period to and including 75 days after notice, and the statute extends that tolling to all parties and potential parties. Have counsel calculate the deadline and confirm compliance. A public hospital may also require separate Tort Claims Act notice.

4. File the lawsuit and serve the expert report

To sue the hospital, file the lawsuit in the appropriate Texas court after addressing the notice requirements and applicable deadline. The hospital must also be formally served with the lawsuit.

After each defendant files its original answer, a separate deadline generally requires service of an expert report and the expert’s curriculum vitae within 120 days. The report requirements are explained below.

5. Exchange evidence and evaluate resolution

The case can proceed through discovery, including document requests, written questions and depositions, subject to Chapter 74’s discovery restrictions. Qualified medical experts evaluate the hospital’s conduct and its connection to the injury.

Hospitals and their insurers typically have defense attorneys, so expect the claim to be contested. Your lawyer can handle settlement negotiations with the hospital or its insurance company and prepare the case for trial if it does not resolve. No particular result is guaranteed.

Expert witness reports and the 120-day deadline

Section 74.351 generally requires service of an expert report and the expert’s curriculum vitae within 120 days after each defendant files its original answer. The deadline runs separately for each defendant, including the hospital.

The expert report must address the applicable standard of care, how the hospital or its employees breached that standard, and how the breach caused the patient’s injury or death. If the case involves different specialties, such as nursing care and radiology, more than one expert witness may be needed.

If no report is timely served, the court must, on the affected defendant’s motion and subject to statutory exceptions, dismiss the claim with prejudice and award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs. With prejudice means the claim cannot be refiled. The statute permits a limited opportunity to cure a deficient report, but that does not excuse ignoring the deadline.

What compensation is available in a medical malpractice suit against a hospital?

An injured patient may seek compensation supported by the evidence, including medical expenses, lost income and the effects of the injury. Different limits apply to different claims and defendants.

Economic losses

Economic damages compensate financial losses. They may include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, home modifications and attendant care. Chapter 74’s cap on non-economic damages does not limit economic damages, but wrongful death and public-hospital rules can impose other limits.

Non-economic losses

Pain, mental anguish and physical impairment are examples of non-economic damages. Under Section 74.301, the limit is $250,000 per claimant against a single health care institution. If multiple institutions are liable, the cap is $250,000 each and $500,000 total for all institutions per claimant.

Wrongful death and survival claims

Section 74.303 sets a separate $500,000-per-claimant base limit, adjusted for inflation, for wrongful death or survival damages. It excludes necessary medical, hospital and custodial care expenses. The base figure is not the current inflation-adjusted ceiling.

Chapter 74 generally treats everyone claiming damages from one person’s injury or death as a single claimant for these purposes.

Special issues with public hospitals

A county, city, state or hospital-district facility may be operated by a governmental unit. The Texas Tort Claims Act can limit whether a claim is allowed, how quickly notice is required and how much may be recovered. Chapter 74 does not itself waive governmental immunity.

Immunity and the hospital’s conduct

Section 101.021 provides a limited waiver for qualifying injuries involving an employee’s operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or equipment, or a condition or use of tangible personal or real property. The Act excludes medical equipment located in hospitals from “motor-driven equipment,” so a claim about hospital equipment generally must fit the tangible property prong instead. A hospital claim must fit an applicable waiver; an allegation of negligent care alone does not establish one.

The Act’s definition of an employee excludes independent contractors. Under Section 101.106, suing the governmental unit may also bar or require dismissal of related claims against an employee, depending on how the claim is brought.

Notice and damages limits

Under Section 101.101, notice is generally due within six months of the incident, and city charters may require earlier notice. Formal notice is unnecessary if the governmental unit has actual notice meeting the legal requirements. Have counsel assess that exception rather than assuming the hospital’s records satisfy it.

Section 101.023 sets these bodily-injury and death limits:

Public entity	Per person	Per occurrence
Local unit other than a city, such as a hospital district	$100,000	$300,000
State or city	$250,000	$500,000

These limits cover damages as a whole, including economic losses. The entity’s legal status must be identified before selecting the applicable cap.

Filing a hospital complaint

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission accepts reports of substandard care at facilities it regulates through its complaint process. Prepare the hospital’s name, dates, unit or room, people involved and a description of what happened.

Treat the complaint and the lawsuit as separate tasks. Do not rely on an HHSC complaint to satisfy Chapter 74 notice, any Tort Claims Act notice, or the court filing deadline. Check those deadlines while the complaint is pending.

How Zinda Law Group helps with a hospital malpractice case

If you or a loved one was harmed during hospital care, you may be dealing with serious injury, ongoing treatment, or grief. A medical malpractice case against a hospital involves records, experts and strict deadlines, so speaking with a lawyer early can help protect your options. Zinda Law Group’s Texas medical malpractice attorneys can review the records, identify the hospital’s role, assess the deadlines that apply to your claim and explain whether you have a malpractice case.

Call 800-863-5312 or request a free case evaluation online.

If we do not win, you will not be responsible for attorney’s fees, court costs, or litigation expenses. If you do win, these expenses and unpaid medical bills will be taken from your share of the recovery.