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Importance of malpractice in nursing
Medical malpractice case study essay
Medical malpractice case study essay
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Medical malpractice suits have started to cause more conflict than they’re solving. Malpractice is when a doctor has neglected or wrongfully treated a patient. A patient can take a doctor to court and receive a large amount of money by proving the doctor messed up. However, suing a doctor over malpractice has become easier every year. The knowledge that malpractice can lead to a patient getting money has led to some individuals searching for any small mistake a doctor could make. This type of thinking has led to new rules and doctors having to question their own choices. Malpractice is supposed to help a patient or family receive compensation for a mistake that a doctor should have never made. However patients are also being scrutinized for suing. They are being accused of being selfish and causing problems to everyone for a stupid mistake. It should be the type of mistake that is caused by the doctor not paying attention or being rude in a way that leads to negative consequences. If a patient experiences that, they have a right to sue. But still, people continue to try to make a mistake out of nothing so that they can sue which is ruining it for people who are actually experiencing it. Malpractice is when that patient gets an injury from a wrong choice the doctor made. It should be an injury that the doctor should have predicted yet failed to do so (De Raedt, 2013, p.10).
There are three types of malpractice. There is medical, professional, and legal. Medical malpractice can be by nurses, nursing home staff, surgeons, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, and anyone else in the medical field. Malpractice can be intentional or from carelessness, but being a doctor, it can be very hard to prove what happened. It is also especially h...
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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.
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,’’.
Explain the issue or dilemma using information from the readings in the book and other sources.
“Case Synopsis by Dan Stidham” in “Case Introduction” in “Case Info”. Dan Stidham. Los Angeles, CA. 2/10/08. .
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.
Tort reformers believe that courts must reduce the ability of defendants’ liability in order to avoid economic decline. In the years to come, the proposals likely to generate the biggest dispute include malpractice and class-action reform, limits on noneconomic and punitive damages, and a legislative solution to asbestos legation (Rushmann, 2006). There are many lawsuits. But the frivolous lawsuits should not be taken seriously and not cost our courts and citizens time and/or money.
Malpractice is defined as improper, illegal, or negligent behavior that falls below the professional minimum standard of care or service for a patient or a client, when injury or loss has been suffered by patient or client.(Merriam-Webster) Malpractice happens when you turn a blind eye to the wrongdoing in a healthcare setting, also known as omission. Omission is when you fail at doing something that you have a legal obligation to do.(Merriam-Webster) Malpractice essentially has four parts, duty, breach, damages, and causation. (“The 4 Elements of Medical Malpractice”) Duty, what you owe the patient, as a healthcare professional. Breach, what is owed to the patient when they are breached by the responsible party. Damages,
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).
Medical malpractice is like a virus that spreads contagiously and has been going on for many years. This phenomenon has caused deaths, diseases, and injuries due to the negligence of medical professionals towards their patients. Hospitals are losing their reputation and doctors are losing lots of their money. Usually after the doctor does something wrong, the patient should file a lawsuit against them and the hospital. One way to prevent malpractice is to pick younger doctors who are more careful with what they are doing. Malpractice is an occurrence that should be stopped soon or many injuries could occur to the patient due to the doctor’s negligence.
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 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….
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.
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
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.
Textbook on Torts 8th edition. Michael A.Jones [2] P419. Textbook on Torts 8th edition. Michael A.Jones [3] The Law of Torts. 9th edition.