Similar to any other legal term, medical malpractice has a very broad definition and cannot be summarized in few words, however before discussing medical malpractice, it is important to understand terms such as ‘adverse event’ or ‘sentinel event’ which translates into an incident involving harm to patient safety.
Medical malpractice refers to an adverse or sentinel event in which an unnecessary or unexpected injury or harm occurs to a patient resulting from medical care or treatment as opposed to the disease or condition that the patient is suffering from.
Medical malpractice occurs when a patient suffers from injury or harm due to negligence by a health care professional. It is important to understand that the Canadian law does not require
…show more content…
Health care professionals are not liable for all the harms or complexities a patient experiences but they are legally responsible if they deviated from the normal standard of care that is expected of them.
Canadian medical malpractice law is in place so the patients can recover damages in the form of compensation for the substandard or negligent treatment they have received while under the care of health care
…show more content…
If this duty of care is not established, a plaintiff cannot bring forward any legal action against the defendant, regardless of how negligent the defendant was and the negligence was the cause of the injury or harm to the plaintiff. In general terms, upon the formation of the physician-patient relationship, a duty of care is established. In majority of Canadian malpractice cases, the existence of the physician-patient relationship (hence the duty of care) is not a real dispute. The real issue is the scope of the duty of care owed by the physician to the patient. For example, when a patient is in emergency room or hospitalized, the physician is not the only one with the duty of care towards the
Medical malpractice has been a controversial issue in the healthcare setting for centuries. Apparently, there are laws to protect patients’ from medical mistakes and errors that are the result of negligence. After researching various laws and medical liability cases based on allegations of negligence, this paper will discuss and provide details on the medical malpractice case of Dorrence Kenneth versus Charleston Community Memorial Hospital. The case analysis will briefly explain information from the beginning to end, including: laws that were violated, codes in the healthcare industry that were breached by the physician and Charlesto...
“One of those obligations is that it must exercise a proper degree of care for its patients, and, to the extent that it fails in that care, it should be liable in damages as any other commercial firm would be
Proximate Cause: The shoulder and rotator cuff injuries were within the scope of the risks that made us determine that the dropping of Vicky’s body was a breach. Because Dwayne dropped Vicky, Dwayne’s dropping of Vicky’s body proximately caused the injuries sustained. Felix’s carrying of the body was a cause in fact but not the proximate cause of the injuries Vicky
Not only do health care providers have an ethical implication to care for patients, they also have a legal obligation and responsibility to care for the patient. According to the Collins English dictionary, a duty of care is ‘the legal obligation to safeguard others from harm while they are in your care, using your services or exposed to your activities’. The legal definition takes it further by making it a requirement that a person act towards others and the public with watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence which a reasonable person in the circumstances would use. If a person’s actions fail to meet the required standard, then the acts are considered negligent (Hill and Hill, 2002). If a professional fails to abide to the standard of practice for their practice in regards to their peers, they leave themselves open to criticisms or claims of breach of duty of care, and possibly negligence. Negligence is comprised of five elements: (1) duty, (2) breach, (3) cause in fact, (4) proximate cause, and (5) harm. Duty is defined as the implied duty to care/provide service, breach is the lack thereof, cause in fact must be proven by plaintiff, proximate cause means that only the harm caused directly causative to the breach itself and not additional causation, and harm is the specific injury resultant from the breach.
Medical malpractice lawsuits are an extremely serious topic and have affected numerous patients, doctors, and hospitals across the country. Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional” (Medical malpractice, n.d.). If a doctor acts negligent and causes harm to a patient, malpractice lawsuits arise. Negligence is the concept of the liability concerning claims of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of tort law. Tort law provides that one person may litigate negligence to recover damages for personal injury. Negligence laws are designed to deter careless behavior and also to compensate victims for any negligence.
Day by day medical technology is improving, unfortunately so are cases of nursing malpractice. By understanding the laws that governs nursing practice, it will help the nurse protect client’s rights and reduce the risk of nursing liability (Sommer, 2013, p. 23). It’s usually necessary to prove that the nurse was negligent to prove nursing malpractice. The Joint Commission defines negligence as a “failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would under similar circumstances” and malpractice as “improper or unethical conduct or unreasonable lack of skill by a holder of a professional or official position. Sommer defines professional negligence as the failure of a person who has a professional training to act in a reasonable and prudent manner (p. 24).
The act of medical responsibility originated in Rome and England dating back to the time of 2030 BC. The act states that a learned professional should always care with responsibility and care toward their profession. Around the year of 1200 AD, Roman law considered medical malpractice to be wrong and expanded their views about it all throughout Europe. It was said by the Code of Hammibal that if a person commits malpractice knowingly or unknowingly they would lose their job, hand, and an eye. Malpractice had also occurred throughout the U.S around the 19th century, due to the negligence of the state’s governments. Medical malpractice litigation has since been sustained for a century and a half by an interacting combination of 6 principal factors.” “Three of these factors are medical: the innovative pressures on American medicine, the spread of uniform standards, and the advent of medical malpractice liability insurance.” “Three are legal factors: contingent fees, citizen juries, and the nature of tort pleading in the United State.” (Mohr). The U.S is very familiar with malpractice b...
When a driver runs a red light and no accident occurs, the driver is still negligent, even though no one got hurt. Similarly, a doctor or other health care professional might deviate from the appropriate medical standard of care in treating a patient, but if the patient is not harmed and their health is not impacted, that negligence won’t lead to a medical malpractice case.
That is the rising number of negligent acts committed by medical professionals. Failure to follow standard of practice is the leading root cause of the troubles involving malpractice. Failure to assess and monitor the patient, failure to communicate, medication errors, negligent delegation or supervision and failure to obtain informed consent from patients are the top failures leading to malpractice. The American Nurses Association provides scopes and standards that if followed could prevent many of the negligent acts. Duty, Breach of Duty, Foreseeability, Causation, Injury, Damages must be proven for a nurse to be held
The main issue here is that professionals are morally being held accountable for it but not legally; situations like this can cause uprising issues because it can affect decisions on what is best for the patient at the time. The best solution for this problem would be for the professionals to educate their patients all all possible health procedures and to let them know that if they cannot take care of it someone else in the field will. Also, educating patients on what the medical procedures would entail would also be beneficial for example at they might be going though, recovery time, or even how
Medical malpractice cases are difficult for the families who have lost their loved one or have suffered from severe injuries. No one truly wins in complicated court hearings that consist of a team of litigation attorneys for both the defendant and plaintiff(s). During the trial, evidence supporting malpractice allegations have to be presented so that the court can make a decision if the physician was negligent resulting in malpractice, or if the injury was unavoidable due to the circumstances. In these types of tort cases, the physician is usually a defendant on trial trying to prove that he or she is innocent of the medical error, delay of treatment or procedure that caused the injury. The perfect example of being at fault for medical malpractice as a result of delaying a procedure is the case of Waverly family versus John Hopkins Health System Corporation. The victims were not compensated enough for the loss of their child’s normal life. Pozgar (2012) explained….
Professionalism can be defined as the competence of skills and principles of an individual in a profession. A professional must be knowledgeable in their profession, committed to improvement of one’s knowledge and skills, service oriented, covenantal relationships to patients/patrons, creative, innovative, ethical, accountable and a leader. These competencies are essential for a professional to perform and excel in their profession.
Medical professionals and other caretakers are held to a higher degree of responsibility for those in their care. Why do you think this is (or is not) important? Medical professionals and other caretakers are held to a higher degree of responsibility for those in their care, because medical malpractice cases are those that seek to hold physicians and medical establishments accountable for any actions that results in physical harm or death as a result of negligent behaviors. I believe that medical professionals and other caretaker are responsibility because they are the responsible that the plaintiff is hurt and those in their care (example family, or nursing home) are watching the plaintiff while there recovering. 3.
The nurse’s role in healthcare continues to expand throughout the years. For example, with the new Healthcare Reform Act taking affect, the roles of the health care nurse expand even more, increasing the demands placed on them for the care and treatment of every patient. This has also led to an expansion of legal liability for malpractice. The nurse upholds a close and professional relationship with the patient and has the best advantage of impacting the patient. The nurse holds the utmost responsibility in continuing to be well informed about malpractice, as well as how to avoid a malpractice case or negligence by presenting outstanding patient care in addition to malpractice insurance to protect yourself from an undesirable outcome.
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.