Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice is negligence committed by a professional health care provider - a doctor, dentist, nurse, technician, hospital or hospital workers. The performance of these health care providers may depart from a standard of practice, which may result in harm to a patient. The majority of medical malpractice actions are filed against physicians who have failed to use reasonable care to treat patients. Year after year, thousands of individuals are injured as a result of medical malpractice, and many people die as a result.

The medical profession sets the standard for malpractice by its own practice and custom. Over the years, the “locality rule” governed, meaning that a doctor was obligated only to possess and apply the knowledge and use the skills and care that is ordinarily used by reasonably qualified doctors in the locality or similar localities. Today, the trend is toward abolishing such a rule in favor of a national standard of practice.

Medical malpractice lawsuits arise under the following circumstances:

  1. Against a medical specialist who deviates from a nationally accepted standard of practice for specialists in that field of medicine.
  2. Against a physician who in the general practice of medicine deviated from the general accepted standards of practice in the community.
  3. Against a hospital for inadequate sanitation, infection, administering improper or overdoses of medication, negligent nursing care, or equipment failure.
  4. Against a government agency that operates hospitals or provides specified medical care.

In suits against the physicians, medical malpractice most commonly occurs under the following circumstances:

  1. The physician fails to obtain the informed consent of the patient before performing a procedure or operation.
  2. The physician failed to perform a surgical procedure properly.
  3. The physician made the correct diagnosis, and then failed to properly treat the medical condition.
  4. The physician delayed diagnosis of a medical condition, or failed to diagnosis the patient's medical condition altogether.
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