12.3.1.2 Physicians

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

. Because the aggravation of an industrial injury by medical malpractice is compensable under the workers’ compensation act, Arizona courts have held that the negligent physician is a third party subject to suit even though he or she was not the cause of the original industrial injury. The malpractice claim, though dependent upon facts different from those giving rise to the original injury, is considered as a extension or outgrowth of the industrial claim rather than as a separate nonindustrial accident, and retains its relationship to the employment.^[166]

The general theory behind physician liability is that the physician is not so intimately a part of the compensation system or extended family that remedies against the physician must be presumed to have been abolished. He or she is not considered to be a party to the give and take that leads to employer and co-employee immunity.^[167] Ironically though, in Arizona, a physician directly employed by an employer’s hospital is also subject to malpractice liability.^[168]

Since a physician is subject to third-party liability under A.R.S. § 23-1023, a malpractice action is subject to automatic assignment to the...