Introduction to Medical Malpractice Injuries Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or healthcare medical professional makes a mistake that causes serious injury, physical or mental harm or death. Legally, it is considered medical malpractice when a doctor fails to comply with a reasonable standard of care. It is a form of negligence that applies to those in the medical profession. Tragically, a doctor’s mistake can have severe, or even deadly, consequences for trusting patients and their families. Because most death certificates are filled out by physicians or other medical personnel, it is hard to quantify exactly how many deaths are caused by medical error. However, a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine says medical errors should …show more content…
In addition, the requirements include an “affidavit of merit,” wherein a medical expert certifies that the evidence shows that malpractice has occurred. Here are some examples of medical malpractice: - Failure to diagnose or discover a medical condition - Misdiagnosis of a medical condition, resulting in improper treatment that fails to cure the original ailment and may lead to additional illness or disorders - Failure to treat a patient’s medical condition properly - Failure to administer anesthesia safely - Failure to manage a pregnancy or deliver a baby in a safe manner. (See the section on Birth Injuries (link) for more information on these types of malpractice injuries) - Failure of a nurse or other staff member to keep a treating physician informed of a patient’s condition - Failure to administer medications properly, including wrong medications or incorrect dosages - Failure to protect a patient from a fall or other injury on hospital
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
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...
Hospital medical errors can involve medicines (e.g., wrong drug, wrong dose, bad combination), an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis, equipment malfunction, surgical mistakes, or laboratory errors. High medical error rates with serious consequences occurs in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments; but, serious errors that harmed patients may have prevented or minimized. Understand the nature of the error
Everyone who has seen Grey’s Anatomy knows all the problems and struggles the characters go through with each episode they watch; they know how much Meredith Grey struggles with her mommy and daddy issues which distract her at work and led her to become emotional involved or make an error with a patient. Everyone has seen the characters on the show have committed at least one mistake that led to the death of a patient or a near to death experience. From the time Callie Torres, an orthopedic surgeon, left a sponge inside of a patient and closed him up to the time George O’Malley, a surgical resident, who nearly killed a patient. But what most viewers who watch Grey’s Anatomy do not fully comprehend is that this is not just in a drama but this is in real life—all doctors make mistakes.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in the United States due to a preventable medical error. A report written by the National Quality Forum (NQF) found that over a decade after the IOM report the prevalence of medical errors remains very high (2010). In fact a study done by the Hearst Corporation found that the number of deaths due to medical error and post surgical infections has increased since the IOM first highlighted the problem and recommended actions to reduce the number of events (Dyess, 2009).
In short, medical negligence becomes medical malpractice when the doctor’s negligent treatment causes undue injury to the patient -- makes the patient’s condition worse, causes unreasonable and unexpected complications, or necessitates additional medical treatment, to name just a few examples of what’s considered “injury” in a malpractice case.
Paul Mountjoy, a reporter of the Washington Times, asks whether medical errors are ranking third in causing deaths in US. In the article, he notes that medical error complications are an emerging major public health issue as he reports that nearly 400,000 American patients die annually due to complications resulting from medical errors. The trend seems to be growing because nearly 10 years ago the figure was nearly 250,000 cases. This is according to a report by Dr. Starfield. Without much guess, this confirms that actually medical errors rank third in killing American citizens. Cancer and heart complications of course take the lead.
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:
Failure to communicate information that affects care (e.g., inadequate or inaccurate documentation, as well as not contacting a physician with pertinent patient information when applicable).
There are several types of medical errors. Those errors are including, but not limited to: Treating the wrong patient; administering the wrong medicine to the patient; doing surgery on the wrong part of the body; extraction of wrong tooth; forgotten a surgical object inside the body (gauge in abdomen for example); fake doctors in Africa. Many of those errors are
I have been aware of medical errors for some time now. While in nursing school I have heard many stories from classmates and instructors of instances where people they knew, or loved ones had been either harmed or died because of a medical error. I have had experiences with medical errors. When I was in the hospital for the birth of my first child, the nurse that came to change out my IV bag did not check the
Wen, L. (2013, 04 26). 10 medical errors that can kill you in the hospital.
Wen, L. ((2013, 04 26)2013, 04 26). 10 medical errors that can kill you in the hospital.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
The testing of a person, using one or more diagnostic tools, to determine the presence of precursors of a particular illness or disease. It must include height, weight, blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rate, vision and hearing.