Medical malpractice involves more than an undesirable outcome to medical treatment. Medical malpractice can happen to anyone—from all walks of life. Even the best of the best can get their “moment”. Medical malpractice is something that is not uncommon; in fact, there have been many incidents reported, and a couple more which were not reported and instead, were just settled outside of courts. The reason for this is that if you want to sue and win on a malpractice claim, you will need to prove several elements to have a successful case. It is a fact that in medical malpractice, your healthcare provider owes you a legal duty by virtue of your provider-patient relationship. The reason for this is that they have sworn to always be at par with their services. The duty is to provide you with care that is in keeping with professional standards. If you are going to prove a malpractice case, you need to be able to prove that the doctor did not meet the standard of care. What is the “standard of care”? The “standard of care” refers to those actions or measures that a reasonable healthcare professional in your community would take in similar circumstances. The actions that are considered reasonable will vary depending on the type of healthcare professional and the particular community. So if you saw a general practitioner in a rural and medically underserved community, you won’t be able to hold that doctor to the same standard of care as you would a highly specialized physician in a large community with state of the art medical tests and facilities available.
To Fully Understand Medical Malpractice, Here Are Some Of The Types:
1. Misdiagnosis Or Failure To Diagnose
Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose is the most frequent medical malpractice problem. Reports say that it takes as much as 40% of the claims. Take for example in emergency rooms, or in emergency situations, doctors can be hurried and thorough examinations are sometimes not performed. The timing and the panic can sink through. This results to inadequate examinations and follow-up procedures. Inadequate examinations and not being able to perform the follow-up procedures are very serious medical matters and can cause significant delays in treatment or severe health complications. There are times when appendicitis can be mistaken as stomach ache, because the patient cannot also fully disclose which area hurts. Likewise, heart attack and staph infections are also some of the most commonly misdiagnosed cases.
2. Surgical Errors
Surgical errors can involve problems such as anesthesia error. In anesthesia error, if the case of the patient requires him to be asleep during the entirety of the operation and this doesn’t happen, then something could be terribly wrong. There are also instances of incorrect incisions, accidental damage to an organ or body part, and complications associated with the surgery itself. Several surgical mistakes and errors can leave patients with serious medical problems and can also result in lengthy post-operative care, an irreparable harm or possible death.
3. Prescription Drug Errors
In a comprehensive study by the Institute of Medicine, prescription and other medication errors account for injuring nearly 1.5 Million patients per year. There are instances when the wrong prescription is given thus this can include pharmacies, hospitals, and even long-term care facilities.
Author Bio
Loren is a Law Student at a leading univerity in New York. In her free times she is quite actively involved in online discussion on various Legal topics.She occasionally contributes articles to sexnermedicalmalpracticelaw.com, a leading medical Mal Practices Attorneys in Chicago. Click Here to find out more about them.
