USF Doctor Malpractice Claims in Tampa

Tampa General Hospital calls itself the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (opens in a new tab), with residents and fellows assigned to it. It says the school’s faculty admit and care for patients there, as do private-practice physicians (opens in a new tab).

The physician group USF Tampa General Physicians describes itself as a nonprofit organization jointly governed by the University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital (opens in a new tab). Its page describes a unified management and support structure for physicians employed by USF Health and by TGH (through Tampa General Medical Group) (opens in a new tab) and says there will be no change in employment for either USF faculty or TGMG physicians (opens in a new tab).

So neither the hospital’s name nor the group’s tells you who employed your doctor. That has to be established for each doctor.

Florida’s statute for claims against government covers state university boards of trustees (opens in a new tab). Florida’s education code lists the University of South Florida among the state universities (opens in a new tab), and the university says USF Health is an integral part of the University of South Florida (opens in a new tab).

The claim is against the body: an officer, employee or agent acting within the scope of the job generally may not be held personally liable or named as a defendant (opens in a new tab). The university’s Self-Insurance Program says the university is considered a state entity (opens in a new tab) and that, in a malpractice lawsuit over a USF employee’s care, the proper defendant is the University of South Florida Board of Trustees, rather than the USF employee (opens in a new tab).

A state university’s employee or agent treating patients at an affiliated hospital is not deemed to be an agent of any person other than the university board (opens in a new tab), if the patient acknowledged separate written notice, unless an emergency made that impractical. The notice must say that the patient will receive care provided by the university board’s employees and that liability, if any, that may arise from that care is limited as provided by law (opens in a new tab).

What a government body can be made to pay is limited, in the 2026 statutes, to no more than $200,000 to one person or $300,000 for one incident (opens in a new tab) without a further act of the Legislature.

Two sets of steps come before suit. The presuit investigation that every medical claim needs applies to claims against the State and its agencies and subdivisions (opens in a new tab). The government claims statute adds a claim in writing to the agency and, unless the body is a county, a city or the Florida Space Authority, to the Department of Financial Services as well, within 3 years after the claim accrues (opens in a new tab), or 2 years in a wrongful death case. That period is for the written claim only. In a medical malpractice action the agency has 90 days after the claim is filed to make a final disposition (opens in a new tab) before it is deemed denied.

The time for suing is the medical one: an action for damages arising from medical malpractice must be commenced within the limitations for such actions (opens in a new tab), meaning the periods set out below.

Tampa General Hospital describes itself as a private not-for-profit hospital (opens in a new tab). The State’s licence record names Florida Health Sciences Center Inc as owner and licensee since October 1, 1997 (opens in a new tab) and gives its profit status as not-for-profit.

The Hillsborough County Hospital Authority’s audited financial statements call it a governmental entity established by the State of Florida (opens in a new tab). They say that on October 1, 1997 the Authority transferred control of operations and substantially all assets and liabilities (opens in a new tab) to that corporation and leased it the campus’s land and buildings, which revert to the Authority when the lease ends.

The State’s list of special districts, where you can look the Authority up by name, gives its purpose as “Hospital - Lease Oversight” (opens in a new tab). The Authority does not hold the hospital’s licence, and this page does not say which rules govern a claim against the corporation that does. That has to be answered for each provider.

Tampa is in Hillsborough County (opens in a new tab), and the county is, by itself, Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab).

A claim against a state university board has its own rule on the county where it is brought (opens in a new tab).

See also where a Tampa medical malpractice case is filed and the Florida law page.