When a doctor or other medical professional makes a mistake, a patient may choose to bring a lawsuit for malpractice against the doctor. Reaching back to the beginning of organized civilization, this is far from a new concept. However, the area of medical malpractice law has changed drastically in the United States over the last few decades. Many have raised concern that the possibility of increased malpractice lawsuits has risen even higher with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 20120 (PPACA). New legislation and technologies make medical malpractice law a constantly-transforming field. In order to understand the current state of medical malpractice law in America, it is important to look at the cases and legislation at the …show more content…
In 1375, the first reported English case of malpractice was reported and quickly followed by the advent of a sort of insurance for health care providers. (Schmidt, Heckert, & Mercer, 1991). The first case of medical malpractice in the United States was Cross v. Guthrie (1794). This case centred on a suit brought by a husband who believed his wife had died due to the result of a mastectomy performed unskilfully and ignorantly. The husband also alleged cruel treatment. The number of medical malpractice claims continued to increase at a fairly regular rate until about 1949, when the largest settlement to date was $115,000. (Flemma, 1985). After this, new technology began to change and extend medical …show more content…
Over the last several decades, many studies have looked into the effects of different legislation upon the number of malpractice claims made. Though an attempt has been made to draw conclusions, an increased number of patients or visits does not appear to have a direct relation to the number of malpractice lawsuits. Under PPACA, the number of individuals with health care coverage is expected to increase by 32 million at full implementation. (Rothstein, 2011). It seems almost certain that this would increase the number of malpractice claims. However, the new legislation - and the technology that allows it to be implemented - will let health care providers work together more easily. This will improve initial care as well as specialist and continuing
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….
Learning from what Dr. Anna Pou had to face with the lawsuits she was dealing with makes me cringe. As Healthcare professionals, having to worry of possibly being sued for believing what is right for the patient or as a whole for the hospitals health is ridiculous. Healthcare professionals like Dr. Pou, have taken the Hippocratic oath, and one of the promises made within that oath is “first, do no harm”. Often time’s society look at courts cases as a battle versus two oppositions, but Dr. Pou’s case it is not. In her statements from national television she states saying her role was to ‘‘help’’ patients ‘‘through their pain,’’.
In the healthcare industry, medical malpractice has a history that extends way beyond the days of physicians carrying a black bag full of medication and remedies to treat patients. Health care has since evolved to digital technology that can detect and treat disease. However, before physicians had advanced machinery making medical diagnosis, doctors had their textbooks and medical judgment to rely on for treatment. Physicians are human and medical mistakes can happen, but should not happen due to negligence. With that said, medical malpractice lawsuits are not the latest trend in the United States. According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, medical malpractice lawsuits first appeared in the United States beginning in the 1800s. However, before the 1960s, legal claims for medical malpractice were rare, and had little impact on the practice of medicine. Since the 1960s the frequency of medical malpractice claims has increased; and today, lawsuits filed by aggrieved patients alleging malpractice by a physician are relatively common in the United States.
What is malpractice? The given definition is improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity or treatment, especially by a medical practitioner, lawyer, or public official. These cases are occurring more all over the state than they should be due to human era. The people at the hands of doctors are being let down as well as left with disfiguration or even death. These cases are leaving people to question their surgeons as well as the nurses attending with them.
In order for a client to successfully bring a legal malpractice suit they must show the required elements of legal malpractice which are “(1) an attorney-client relationship; (2) a duty owed to the client by the attorney to use such skill, prudence, and diligence as lawyers of ordinary skill and capacity possess in exercising and performing the tasks which they undertake; (3) a breach of that duty; (4) the breach being the proximate cause of the client's damages; and (5) actual loss or damage resulting from the negligence.” Mainor v. Nault, 101 P.3d 308, 310 (Nev. 2004).
Medical error occurs more than most people realize and when a doctor is found negligent the patient has the right to sue for compensation of their losses. Debates and issues arise when malpractice lawsuits are claimed. If a patient is filing for a medical malpractice case, the l...
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...
Rising health care costs have caused a national crisis, and all agree we must embrace reform. President Obama has initiated his national health care plan in the hopes of decreasing some of the inflated costs. When attempting to resolve this issue, one must always address the root of the problem. A large portion of these inflationary costs stem from malpractice lawsuits, and so begins the debate for tort reform: legislation which would cut the costs of health care by reducing the risk of civil litigation and exposure to fraudulent claims (“What”). However, the real factor at hand and the real cause of the industry’s high costs does not come solely from the cost incurred from these lawsuits, but from over-expenditures on the part of doctors, who over-test and over-analyze so as to safeguard themselves from the threat of malpractice lawsuits. Thus, large public support exists for tort reform. While the proposed legislation enacted through tort reform could cut the costs of health care and positively transform the industry, it is ultimately unconstitutional and could not withstand judicial scrutiny.
For healthcare providers, there is no word that elicits as much frustration, fear and anger as much as the word “malpractice.” Medical malpractice is defined as any act or omission by a physician during treatment of a patient that deviates from accepted norms of practice in the medical community and causes an injury to the patient. Medical malpractice is a specific subset of tort law that deals with professional negligence. In order to prove that there was some type of negligence going on you must show that:
Before tort reform was passed in Texas, many doctors were being sued for medical malpractice and there was definite evidence of lawsuit abuse. According to The Heritage Foundation, doctors had become easy targets for medical malpractice lawsuits because there is no point in pursuing a lawsuit against someone who does not have the money. Doctors have the money and the insurance to potentially be able to satisfy a judgment. Over time, the amount of medical malpractice lawsuits have risen, which in turn has lead to medical malpractice insurance rates rising. With the cost of the insurance rising, many doctors retired early, left the business, or moved to new states. This in turn affected healthcare costs and other aspects for patients.
Most people don't pay attention to malpractice until it's too late and it's happening to them and it's unbearable.The average annual number of suits filed each year is about 85,000, with the actual number of medical injuries estimated to be about one million per year. The amount of malpractice cases is rising and is continuing to rise and that's not good for the economy or for the civilians. “More than 250,000 people die each year in the United States because of medical errors.”( Manning) The issue is that malpractice is happening to often now and needs to come to a decline. I am a witness to this and so are both sides of my family with different
When evaluating medical malpractice, this can be performed by any healthcare professional. It is easy to classify this to be misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, even not taking the time to evaluate a patient properly. When practicing medicine it is important that all measures be taken when a patient is showing signs of infection or having any adverse reaction to medication. In the case study below this is a prime example of the importance of checking patient progression.
The statute of limitation refers to the length of time in which a plaintiff can file a claim. The principle behind statute of limitation is that lawsuits cannot be improved as time passes by. For one, clear details of the facts can be blurred as memories can fade and witnesses may die, go away, or lose interest of the case. Ideally, court prefers to settle the case as soon as disputes develop (Warner, 2010). However, for professional and product liabilities, with injuries may take time to manifest, many courts adapted different rules such as postponing the running of the statute until the injury has been reasonably discovered. The length of time differs among states and branches of law (Danzon, 1985). The long and deferred statutes of limitations lead to long tail of claims and contributed majority of medical malpractice and product liability (Danzon, 1985). In this section, statutes of limitations for medical malpractice in two states are compared.
During the 1980’s, medical-related situations continuously occurred that made patients question their insurance policies as well as the privacy of their health care. Congress worked to create a bill containing strict rules regarding insurance policies and availability for one to keep their insurance if they are to move jobs. These rules were soon applied to all medical facilities and faculty and titled the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act”.The H.I.P.A.A. policies brought about change in professionalism, medical standards, taxing, and enforcement. Throughout history, maintaining patient privacy has always been a problem in the medical field. Patients have the right to their privacy and the information that they do not want to disclose should be kept privately. Since this was an overly occurring problem, the congress believed that they should make a law to fix this problem. On August 21, 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by congress and President Bill Clinton.
Medical malpractice is a serious allegation and hence, should be taken seriously too. The life of the patient in which the negligence was committed against can be actually put in the one because the practitioner was not mindful enough of his responsibilities. This is why, it is only right that people would seek legal assistance if they were ever put at risk from such a situation, if you incurred physical injuries as a result of such a negligence, you want to see to it that appropriate complaint is field towards the right authorities.