Nearly every industry uses them. The Health Care industry is full of them. They are "employees of one business who are contracted out to provide particular services to another business." They could be support personnel for an IT department. They could be medical personnel staffing a segment of a hospital. Often times, they "blend in" with the employees of the other business. They provide valuable services, but when they have a claim -- whether it be workers' comp or wrongful discharge, who is responsible?

Miller & Martin recently defended an employer against such a claim.

Last week, in Gager v. River Park Hospital, the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of River Park Hospital ("the Hospital") who was sued by the employee of another entity with whom it had a contract to provide medical support services. The plaintiff was a nurse practitioner who was employed by a contractor who provided medical support services for the Hospital’s Emergency Room. Based on a number of issues, the Hospital had asked the contractor to assign the plaintiff somewhere other than its ER. When the contractor then fired the plaintiff, she sued the Hospital for whistleblower retaliation under both statutory and common law, claiming she was a “loaned servant” of the Hospital and, as such, should have the same legal protection as a Hospital employee.