A Brief Note On Malpractice And Medical Malpractice

What is malpractice? The given definition is improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity or treatment, especially by a medical practitioner, lawyer, or public official. These cases are occurring more all over the state than they should be due to human era. The people at the hands of doctors are being let down as well as left with disfiguration or even death. These cases are leaving people to question their surgeons as well as the nurses attending with them.

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

A second issue is malpractice. Malpractice issues are always present in an unstable environment where patients will seek to remedy an incident if they feel they have been harmed (Hamric, 2009). It is important to always act in a reasonable way as a health care clinician but unfortunately there are always those who are negligent in their actions as practitioners.

Tort reform has intense arguments to both sides and creates a myriad of concerns. On one side of the tort reform movement, defendants such as corporations and medical professionals want limits on the damages awarded to the plaintiff. The benefit of tort reform for defendant is the financial savings. However, a cap placed on medical malpractice cases and other cases that are of negligence would standardize the monetary compensation regardless of the damage. In my opinion, Medical malpractice tort reform is a gray area, for each breach of the standard of care involves a different story and person, therefore the damages vary and should be evaluated fairly. In this essay, both sides of the argument are discussed, with a focus on medical malpractice tort reform.

The moral philosophies each have their perspectives on moral act when it comes to others well- being. When an organization is operating in a safe and responsible manner, then there is nothing to fear. (HG.org., 2015). However, when negligence comes in play, then there is a red flag. Organizations should be operating at their highest potential and keeping their customer, clients, and patients in mind in order to continue without the fear of a lawsuit. The “frivolous actions,” are what some people express to those who are attempting to obtain any financial benefits from the negligence is sad. The tort reform is unfair to the people that are harmed and some of the injuries may be permanent and painful. Moreover, this violates the person’s constitutional rights and the tort law placing caps on the amount sets the boundaries to the ruling of the jury. An organization who makes the defective product or the physician who caused the pain, should be responsible for compensation for their wrongdoing or malpractice. With this, it could assist other organizations to practice the business without causing harm to their customers, clients, and

Medical malpractice claims have risen dramatically over the past 40 years alongside the financial claim awards (Kessler, 2011). Currently, America’s medical tort system is regulated and enforced primarily by the states (“Medical Tort System,” 2016). The main focus of tort law is to preserve the peace between two parties, to determine fault and discourage wrong doing (Pozgar, 2016). Most physicians today carry medical malpractice insurance to protect themselves from the high defense costs of claims and potential financial awards (Kessler, 2011). As the number of medical claims increase and jury awarded punitive damage skyrocket, medical malpractice insurance premiums have also risen dramatically (Kessler, 2011). Malpractice insurance

Malpractice is the failure to provide professional services with the skill usually exhibited by responsible and careful members of the profession, resulting in injury, loss, or damage to the party contracting those services. Though accountants, lawyers, and other professionals can be charged with malpractice, the term is most commonly associated with medical professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, hospital technicians.) Liability in malpractice depends on whether "a physician meets a legally required standard of care" (Greenberg 2011). Most medical malpractice suits are for negligence on the part of medical professionals in providing this expected level of care. In recent decades, partially as a consequence of medical costs, there has been a considerable expansion of medical malpractice suits, though the number of malpractice claims represents only a small percentage (about 3%) of all cases of actual negligence. State tort provisions do "influence litigation risk and malpractice insurance is used to mitigate this risk" (Linville 2011).

In the healthcare field, one of the rudimentary rules first learned is maleficent, “to do no harm.” However, medical malpractice seems to be skyrocketing throughout the years. In 2010, according to the American Medical Association (AMA), the United States was experiencing its third full blown medicine liability crisis with many physicians’ practices becoming limited due to increasing malpractice costs (Ellington, 2010). According to Sage (2012), United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and a high rate of litigation. Under the healthcare delivery system, it is viewed as far from perfect and the primary cause for high unjustified medical spending. As well as, the largest financial damages awarded to successful plaintiffs

Malpractice actions are different from state to state, but I don’t think it’s consistent with the public’s generally held beliefs about malpractice because people want physicians to be liable for damages and

Physicians have been known to use Defensive medicine techniques to help guard themselves against malpractice lawsuits. The problem with using defensive medicine techniques is that it is regarded as prescribing unnessary test, procedures, and checkup appointments (chap. 12). All of these added unnecessary medical treatment and documentation contributes to the growing cost of health care in the United States (U.S.) (chap. 12). Physicians who use the defensive medicine techniques also have a higher risk of having a malpractice lawsuit that will lead to malpractice awards and an increase in insurance premiums that will add to the increase in health care costs (chap. 12). Even though the defensive medicine is viewed as an intervention, it is

The rising price of health care and the amount of medical malpractice claims being filed sparked a start to this controversial topic. The average price of medical care has gone up roughly 20 percent between the late ‘80s and the early 2000s (The risk authority, 2014). And the amount of medical malpractice claims in the same twenty years has arisen from one person filing a claim to five people filing the same claim, in a small ratio (Doyle, n.d.). The rising cost of medical expenses is feeding off of the increase in the amount of these cases filed every year. There are other reasons for the medical cost to rise such as the new expensive treatments and medications. But these new innovations are also raising the amount medical malpractice

“If people understood that doctors weren’t divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish”(Richard Selzer). “Between 210,000 and 440,000 patients, each year go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.”(-Journal of Patient Safety). When medical malpractice happens, many people blame the health care worker involved. Is it entirely fair to shift the blame are the institutions and practices not the ones that deceived them. Three changes needed to be made to cut medical malpractice are reducing the understaffing of nurses, having effective medical practices, and implementing proper communication.

Health Care is always going to have laws and regulations to go by. However, not every employee in the health care field is going to abide by these rules and regulations. Therefor, courts have plenty of health care cases come into their court every year because of negligence. In some cases, the courts decide in the patient 's favor and others decide in the facilities or doctor 's favor. The judge and Jury members have to be given plenty of evidence and facts in order to provide both the defendant and plaintiff with a fair judgment. In most cases not everyone is happy with the decision of the outcome that the jury comes up with. To avoid horrific incidents, physicians must not be negligent with their patients.

In both quality care and culture of safety it is imperative to prevent mistakes that could happen in the healthcare setting. One facet of both topics is surgical errors. There is plenty of research out there to promote the use of the culture of safety and quality care in relation to surgical errors as well as how to prevent them. There is not however enough research out there to judge how well this material on prevention in the surgery setting is being used. The goal of this paper is identifying the issue of surgical errors, what is happening in healthcare

Inexperience and ignorance are two factors that can result in unintentional harm to a patient. For instance, foolish mistakes made out of