Collaborative Practice Agreements

The act alone of a physician entering into a Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) with a Nurse Practitioner does not create a duty owed by the physician to the Nurse Practitioner's patients.

If the physician is not engaged in a physician-patient relationship with the patient (i.e. by not performing any affirmative act with regard to the patient), the physician therefore owes the patient no duty. The terms of the CPA are also critical as far as whether they place any increased liability on the physician for decisions made by the NP, and whether the NP has the independent authority to treat patients as he or she deems fit. As such, a physician does not enter into a physician-patient relationship with each of a NP's patients merely by entering into a CPA with the NP.