You may be worried about a mistake by your doctor or nurse. Medical Malpractice happens when a healthcare provider causes harm because they did not meet the standard of care. This guide will explain what medical malpractice is and how you can protect yourself.
Keep reading to learn the facts you need to know.
What is Medical Malpractice?
After learning what this topic is about, the next step is to explain how medical malpractice affects patients and healthcare providers. Medical malpractice happens when a healthcare provider does not give proper care based on accepted standards.
This can include doctors, nurses, or hospitals who act with negligence or fail in their duty of care.
Patients who suffer harm because of poor decisions or mistakes may have grounds for legal claims. Examples are surgical errors, missed diagnoses, and giving the wrong medication. The law lets injured patients seek compensation if they prove that a medical error caused injury.
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor fails to follow standard procedures, leading to patient harm.
Key Elements of Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice has certain parts that must be proven in court. These legal elements help decide if a healthcare provider is responsible for patient harm.
Duty of care
Healthcare providers have a duty of care to their patients. This means doctors, nurses, and hospitals must act as other professionals would in similar situations. They must follow the standard of care set by medical experts.
If a doctor fails to check for allergies before giving medicine, that can break this duty. A breach of duty often leads to patient harm or injury.
A patient trusts their provider with important health decisions. The law will look at what a careful doctor would do in the same case to decide if the provider met this legal responsibility.
Not meeting these expectations may result in negligence and liability for any damages caused. Next is how breaking this duty is called a breach of duty.
Breach of duty
Doctors must follow a standard of care for every patient. If a healthcare provider does not act like other skilled professionals in the same situation, this is called a breach of duty.
For example, giving the wrong medication or missing clear signs of illness can show negligence. These actions can lead to legal claims because they may cause harm or injury to patients.
A careless mistake in treatment can turn into a case of medical malpractice.
To prove your claim, you also need to show how this breach caused harm or damages.
Causation
Causation means a direct link must exist between the healthcare provider’s negligence and the patient’s injury. The patient must show that the breach of duty by the provider led to harm.
For example, if a doctor fails to diagnose an infection and the patient gets worse, causation connects this mistake with the injury.
Courts need clear proof that without medical errors, harm would not have happened. Expert witnesses often help in showing how actions or lack of care caused damage. Without causation, malpractice claims cannot succeed even if there was negligence or a breach of duty.
Damages
Damages refer to the harm or loss suffered by a patient because of negligence from a healthcare provider. These can include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and long-term disability. Courts may also award extra money for emotional distress caused by malpractice.
Proof of damages is key in any malpractice claim. Without real injury or harm, legal claims do not stand in court. Damages show how serious the error was and help decide what compensation is fair.
Up next are common examples where medical errors lead to such claims.
Common Examples of Medical Malpractice
Doctors can make mistakes that cause harm to patients. These cases often lead people to file malpractice claims against healthcare providers.
Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis are top reasons for medical malpractice claims. A healthcare provider may fail to recognize signs of a disease, like cancer or heart attack. This mistake can cause serious patient harm or make treatment harder later.
In the United States, diagnostic errors affect about 12 million adults each year.
Patients often suffer because the standard of care was not met. Missing an infection, stroke, or other illness can lead to injury or death. Malpractice claims from misdiagnosis often involve missed diseases in emergency rooms and primary care clinics.
Healthcare providers must act quickly and follow proper steps to find the right answer for each patient’s symptoms.
Surgical errors
Surgical errors happen when a healthcare provider makes a mistake in the operating room. A surgeon might operate on the wrong body part, leave tools inside the patient’s body, or perform surgery on the wrong patient.
These mistakes can lead to serious injury or even death. Reports from 2016 show that surgeons left foreign objects like sponges or towels inside patients about 4,500 times each year in the United States.
Many surgical errors are preventable and often occur because safety steps were skipped. Failure to follow proper procedures is considered professional misconduct under medical malpractice law.
The patient can suffer infections, more surgeries, pain, and high medical bills due to these mistakes.
Even small surgical mistakes can cause lifelong problems for patients.
Medication errors
Medication errors can happen if a healthcare provider gives the wrong drug or dose to a patient. These mistakes may involve confusing similar drug names, unclear handwriting, or failing to check allergies.
For example, giving penicillin to someone allergic to it can cause serious harm.
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention reports that medication errors injure over 1.5 million people in the United States each year. Some patients suffer side effects like rashes or breathing problems, while others may face life-threatening reactions.
These cases often lead to malpractice claims because they show negligence and failure to meet the standard of care expected from medical professionals.
Birth injuries
Birth injuries can occur if a healthcare provider does not follow the standard of care during labor or delivery. Common causes include using too much force, waiting too long to do a necessary C-section, or failing to watch for signs of distress in the baby or mother.
Conditions like cerebral palsy can result from these mistakes. Other examples are broken bones and nerve damage.
A patient may file malpractice claims if the injury was preventable and caused by negligence. Doctors, nurses, and hospitals have a duty of care to both mother and child during birth.
If someone breaches this duty and causes harm, they can be held liable under medical malpractice law. Proof often comes from expert witnesses who review medical records next.
How to Prove Medical Malpractice
To prove medical malpractice, you must show the healthcare provider did not meet the standard of care and caused harm. Learn how evidence and experts play a role in these claims. Read more to understand your rights.
The role of expert witnesses
Expert witnesses help explain if the healthcare provider met the standard of care. These experts are usually doctors or nurses with experience in the same field as the accused provider.
Their job is to review medical records and facts from the case. They compare actions taken by the doctor to what most careful professionals would do in that situation.
Courts rely on expert witnesses to show if negligence occurred. Their opinion often decides if a breach of duty happened and whether it caused patient harm or injury. Without an expert’s input, many medical malpractice claims cannot move forward.
Expert testimony makes complex medical issues clear for judges and juries who are not trained in medicine.
Gathering evidence and medical records
After expert witnesses help explain the standard of care, gathering evidence and medical records becomes crucial. Patients or their families should collect all documents related to the treatment.
This includes test results, doctor notes, discharge papers, and medication lists. Photos of injuries or copies of bills can also support a malpractice claim.
Clear and complete records make it easier to show if a healthcare provider breached duty or caused harm. Courts use these records to link negligence with patient injury. Strong evidence may include timelines that detail symptoms, treatments, and mistakes.
With these details, proving liability for medical errors becomes much stronger in court cases filed after 2020.
Conclusion
Understanding medical malpractice helps keep patients safe. Patients should know their rights and what makes a strong claim. If a healthcare provider causes harm, you may have options for legal help.
Knowing the basics can guide you if you face injury or mistakes during care. Stay informed to protect your health and interests.
