In malpractice, a rule which bases the standard of care a physician owes a patient on the standard of care generally attained in a specific locality. The most restrictive form of the rule is that the measure of a physician’s duty of care to a patient is that degree of care, skill, and diligence used by physicians, generally, in the same locality or community. A less restrictive form holds that a physician owes that degree of care to a patient which is exercised by physicians, generally, in the same or similar localities or communities. The rationale for the more expansive rule, being applied more widely by courts today, is that the earlier emphasis on locality is no longer appropriate in light of better communications, and the standardization of hospital procedures and physician licensure brought about by State statutes and regulations.
A legal doctrine which states that the standard of care (legal) in a malpractice lawsuit will be measured by the degree of care exercised by similar professionals within the same geographic area (locality), rather than within the world, nation, state, or profession at large. Some states use this rule; others do not.