Kirsch, J.
Crystal West (“Crystal”) was injured in a workplace accident, when her coworker (“Michael”), while operating heavy machinery, hit the cherry-picker truck in which Crystal was riding, causing Crystal to fall twenty-nine feet and sustain catastrophic and permanent injuries. Crystal and her husband William West (collectively, “the Wests”) filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in the Marion Superior Court (“Marion County action”) against Preferred Professional Insurance Company (“PPIC”), Hills Insurance Company (“Hills”), Indiana Department of Insurance (“IDOI”) and the Patient’s Compensation Fund (“PCF”), seeking a declaration that Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act (“MMA”) did not apply to the Wests’ claims of negligence, which the Wests were pursuing against Michael’s health care providers by way of a complaint filed and pending in the St. Joseph Circuit Court (“St. Joseph action”) and a proposed complaint simultaneously filed with the IDOI. In the Marion County action, the Wests and defendant PCF each filed a motion for summary judgment, seeking a determination that the MMA was not applicable to the Wests’ claims, and PPIC and Hills (collectively, “Insurance Defendants”) filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, asserting that the Wests’ claims fell within the purview of the MMA. The Marion County trial court granted the Wests’ and PCF’s motions for summary judgment and denied the Insurance Defendants’ motion, finding that the Wests’ allegations constituted claims of common law negligence, not medical malpractice, and thus do not fall within the MMA. The Insurance Defendants appeal and raise the following restated issues:
I. Whether it was permissible for Marion County to issue a declaratory judgment on the applicability of the MMA to the Wests’ pending claims in the St. Joseph action; and
II. Whether the trial court’s grant of summary judgment, which determined that the Wests’ claims do not fall within the purview of the MMA, was erroneous.
We affirm.
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With regard to the filing of the message slip, the essence of the claimed misconduct does not involve any exercise of professional medical judgment or skill by the medical provider. We have recognized that the text of the MMA indicates that the legislature intended to exclude from the MMA “conduct of a provider unrelated to the provider’s exercise of judgment or skill.” B.R., 1 N.E.3d at 716 (quoting Collins, 552 N.E.2d at 510-11). Indeed, there is no need for a medical review panel, the purpose of which “is to provide an expert determination on the question of whether a provider complied with the appropriate standard of care.” Id. The issues surrounding the administrative matter of the filing of the message slip are within the understanding of the average lay juror. A jury would be capable of resolving factual issues without applying the standard of care prevalent in the local medical community, and jurors’ common knowledge and experience would enable them to understand these circumstances. Accordingly, the trial court properly determined this claim was not within the scope of the MMA. ….
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…. Assuming without deciding that the claimed failure to warn Michael about the effects and restrictions of the medication constitutes giving (or failing to give) medical care as considered by the MMA, our inquiry does not end there.
The MMA is applicable only to claims by “a patient or the representative of a patient who has a claim under the article for bodily injury or death on account of malpractice.” Ind. Code § 34-18-8-1. Therefore, we must determine whether the Wests fall within the scope of the MMA’s definition of a “patient” having a claim as a result of alleged malpractice. The MMA defines patient as follows:
“Patient” means an individual who receives or should have received health care from a health care provider, under a contract, express or implied, and includes a person having a claim of any kind, whether derivative or otherwise, as a result of alleged malpractice on the part of a health care provider. Derivative claims include the claim of a parent or parents, guardian, trustee, child, relative, attorney, or any other representative of the patient including claims for loss of services, loss of consortium, expenses, and other similar claims.
Ind. Code § 34-18-2-22 (emphasis added). Focusing on the “having a claim of any kind” and “or otherwise” language, the Insurance Defendants argue that the definition is intentionally broad and encompasses the claims of the Wests, such that the MMA applies to their claims. They urge that the MMA’s definition of a patient does not rest upon who the patient is; rather, it rests upon what type of claim is pursued. Their position is that if the alleged misconduct derives from medical malpractice to a patient (here, Michael), it is medical malpractice to all persons having a claim based upon the alleged malpractice. Reply Br. at 9. After careful consideration, we find that this position is not consistent either with the language of the statute or the legislative intent behind the MMA.
The statute’s definition begins with the requirement that the patient be an individual “who receives or should have received health care from a healthcare provider.” Ind. Code § 34-18-2-22. Clearly, Crystal was not the person who received health care treatment; it was Michael. While the statute’s definition further states that a patient “includes a person having a claim of any kind, derivative or otherwise,” we do not believe this inclusive language eviscerated the initial requirement that a patient be an individual who receives or should have received health care from a provider. Ind. Code § 34-18-2-22. As the Marion County trial court reasoned,
All of the examples referenced in the definition of “patient” are categories of individuals who are entitled to bring a claim as result of an injury occurring to a patient who has “received health care treatment from a healthcare provider, under a contract, expressed or implied.”
Appellants’ App. at 31 (Conclusion 54). We are mindful that when a court is called upon to construe words in a single section of a statute, it must construe them with due regard for all other sections of the act and with regard for the legislative intent to carry out the spirit and purpose of the act. Detterline v. Bonaventura, 465 N.E.2d 215, 218 (Ind. Ct. App. 1984), trans. denied. In addition, we must presume that the legislature intended its language to be applied in a logical manner consistent with the statute’s underlying policy and goals. Id. Our Supreme Court has explained that the purpose and legislative intent behind the MMA was to address the problem of escalating cost to physicians of malpractice insurance, and thus preserve the availability of professional health care service to the community. Id. at 217-18 (citing Johnson, 273 Ind. at 379-80, 404 N.E.2d at 589-90). We find that if we were to read the “or otherwise” language of the statue to expand the definition of “patient” to include anyone injured as result of acts by anyone providing health care, it would effectively render the rest of the statute’s language defining “patient” meaningless and without purpose. We do not believe the MMA was intended to cover claims by third parties having absolutely no relationship to the doctor or medical provider.
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BAKER, J., concurs.
ROBB, J., concurs in result with separate opinion.
ROBB, Judge, concurring in result
I respectfully concur in the result reached by the majority. I, too, agree that the Wests’ claims do not fall within the MMA and therefore the trial court properly granted summary judgment to the Wests and PCF. However, I would arrive at that conclusion by a slightly different path.
Unlike the majority, I believe both negligent acts alleged by the Wests could fall within the MMA. The filing of the message slip showing the change in Michael’s prescription and accompanying advisements was integral to the exercise of Dr. M’s medical judgment in advising Michael that he was cleared to return to work with no restrictions. Further, I would not say the allegations that Nurse P failed to warn Michael are “at the periphery of medical malpractice” or only “potentially call[ ] into question the degree of skill exercised by Michael’s health care provider.” Slip op. at 20-21 (quoting Eads, 932 N.E.2d at 1244). Regardless of her official title or professional certification, she was acting as a surrogate or conduit for medical advice and was therefore providing health care to Michael.
However, I do not believe it is necessary to decide whether these acts sound in medical negligence. Even if we assume the failure to file the message slip and failure to warn claims fall within the MMA, the dispositive question is whether the MMA covers claims by a third party independent of the two people engaged in the medical give and take. I, like the majority, believe Gahl is instructive in answering this question. In Gahl, the claimant was the estate of a third party who was not warned by medical providers of the patient’s dangerous propensities. The patient himself had no claim based on the appropriateness of his care, nor did anyone whose claim would have been derivative of the patient’s. The third party in Gahl alleged the medical providers’ negligence was a direct failure to warn him and yet we held he was not a patient asserting a claim governed by the MMA. Here, the Wests are a completely independent third party alleging a failure to warn the patient caused their injury. The relationship between the parties is even more distant in this case than it was in Gahl and lends further support to the conclusion that the Wests’ claims are not subject to the MMA.
As I ultimately agree with the majority that the Marion County trial court’s determination was correct, I concur in result.