What is the legal duty owed to the plaintiff by a health care provider called?

• A. Duty
• B. Breach of duty
• C. Injury
• D. Proximate cause

Answer: (A)

The obligation a health care provider has to exercise reasonable care toward a patient is called duty. This duty arises from the physician-patient relationship and sets the standard the provider must meet to avoid harming the patient. If such a duty exists, a negligence claim proceeds to examine whether the provider breached that duty by not meeting the standard of care, whether the patient was injured, and whether the injury was caused by the breach (proximate cause). The other terms describe those later elements: breach of duty is failing to meet the standard; injury is the harm suffered; proximate cause is the link between the breach and the harm. In dentistry, the standard of care is what a reasonably competent dentist would do in similar circumstances, and it can be informed by guidelines and informed consent requirements. Because this question asks for the label of the obligation itself, the correct term is duty.