(1) Provision is hereby made for the establishment of medical review panels to review all malpractice claims against health care providers covered by the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act in advance of filing such actions.

Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 44-2840

  • Action: shall include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Action shall: include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Attorney: shall mean attorney at law. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Director: shall mean the Director of Insurance. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2807
  • Health care: shall mean any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's care, treatment, or confinement. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2811
  • Patient: shall mean a natural person who receives or should have received health care from a licensed health care provider under a contract, express or implied. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2805
  • Physician: shall mean a person with an unlimited license to practice medicine in this state pursuant to the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act or a person with a license to practice osteopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state pursuant to sections 38-2029 to 38-2033. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2804
  • Representative: shall mean the spouse, parent, guardian, adult child, executor, administrator, trustee, attorney, or other legal agent of the patient. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2808
  • State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801

(2) No action against a health care provider may be commenced in any court of this state before the claimant’s proposed complaint has been presented to a medical review panel established pursuant to section 44-2841 and an opinion has been rendered by the panel.

(3) The proceedings for action by the medical review panel shall be initiated by the patient or his or her representative by notice in writing with copy of a proposed complaint served upon the director personally or by registered or certified mail. Such notice shall designate the claimant’s choice of the physician to serve on the panel, claimant’s suggestion of an attorney to serve, and the court where the action shall be filed, if necessary.

(4) The claimant may affirmatively waive his or her right to a panel review, and in such case the claimant may proceed to file his or her action directly in court. If the claimant waives the panel review, the claimant shall serve a copy of the complaint upon the director personally or by registered or certified mail at the time the action is filed in court.

  Previous section
Next section  
 Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act Contents