The Massachusetts malpractice plaintiff's new hurdles: the expanding role of the medical malpractice screening tribunal.

The medical malpractice crisis of the early and mid-1970s prompted many states to enact legislation creating medical malpractice screening tribunals. This legislation often failed to define clearly the role and jurisdiction of the tribunals. The lack of statutory definition is particularly apparent where a claim before a tribunal raises primarily nonmedical issues. The changing doctrines of hospital liability, involving both medical and nonmedical determinations, illuminate this jurisdictional difficulty. This Note examines the Massachusetts courts' attempts to define the tribunal's role when the tribunal is confronted with issues of hospital liability and other unsettled areas of the substantive law of medical malpractice. The Note suggests that tribunals should be limited to deciding issues concerning medical treatment and the professional conduct of physicians and hospitals.