Case Study : The Malpractice Case

“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient. The negligence might be the result of errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or health management.” (Admin) One of the most common type of claims that pharmacies face are negligence claims. Negligence is one of the categories that falls under the area of law called Torts. In the Hundley v Rite Aid case, a tort was filed for injuries that were sustained by Gabrielle Hundley after she took medication from an incorrectly filed prescription. The case involved a jury trial verdict involving Gabrielle Hundley, a minor child, against Howard Jones, the pharmacist, and the Rite

Pretend you supervise the correspondence unit of the health information services department of a medical center. Today, you received a subpoena duces tectum from an attorney, demanding either the originals or copies of all health records concerning Mary Smith, who allegedly is or was a patient of the medical center. The subpoena lacks sufficient information for you to determine whether Mary Smith is or was a patient in your facility. The subpoena is not accompanied by a valid authorization to release information for Mary Smith, as required in your state. (Case Study, p. 62)

The health record is a collection of information about a patient’s past and present health. The primary purpose of the health record is to document the health history of the patient. It helps in patient care management and patient care support process. Moreover, record’s primary purpose is to get information for billing and reimbursement. The secondary purpose of the health record is to provide a legal record of care given and act as a source of data to support clinical audit, research, resource allocation, performance monitoring, epidemiology and service planning. Sometimes health information will be de-identified before it is used for these secondary

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

employer, professional regulatory body, and the law for an unwarranted breach of confidence, it is essential that any disclosure of information is done appropriately within the requirements of the duty owed to the patient” (Griffith, 2015, p.358). The law is very strict and nobody has the right to violate the patient's confidentiality and have access to the medical information without been authorized by the patient. For this action Kevin will need written authorization in order to have access to the records. According to the Code of Ethics for Nurses is the nurse who is charged with helping to preserve the patient’s privacy by only asking the questions that are clinically relevant. “Confidentiality is

Health information is an important source of information and evidence when the services provided are communicated in legal and professional documentation. It is a documentation which is a legal requirement and a record of the beneficiary’ care as well as a communication vehicle between other disciplines and providers. It not only ensures the services provided to individuals but is a crucial tool to support reimbursement of services and a basis for research. Incomplete and improper documentation potentially may lead into a denial of payment for services as well as question’s the quality of care provided.

Contrary to the alleged, Dr. Brock refuted the claim, defending that he never established a doctor-patient relationship with Anita, which relieves him of liability. In order to validate his refute, Dr. Brock provided four factual elements that were supported by his counterparts; Dr. Whitfield and Dr. Ketcham. The four elements that were presented in the affidavit included: (1) That there has never been a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Brock and Anita Oliver, (2) Dr. Brock has never seen or talked to Anita or Cathy Oliver, (3) Dr. Brock was not employed, engaged or requested to serve as a consultant to treat Anita, (4) and Dr. Brock was not employed or engaged to consult with doctors treating Anita, concerning complaints or medical problems. In order to support Dr. Brock’s refute, Dr. Whitfield and Dr. Ketcham provided affidavit’s as

“Patient-specific information recorded and communications made in the course of providing mental health or developmental disability services are considered confidential and may not be disclosed except as provided by law (McWay, 2010, p. 239)”. A patient’s medical record is property of the hospital or the facility that created the record. However, the information held in the record is the possessions of the patient, and a copy of the record (with a mental health or development disability case) can be released to the patient as long as he/she is twelve years old. Also a patient who is twelve years old has the power to consent to release information to a third party. The release of a health record, with a mental health or development disability issue, can be permitted to the patient’s legal guardian without the consent of the patient, if the patient is under the age of twelve years old. However, if a

Any information utilized in, “documenting healthcare or health status,” of a patient must be included in the designated record set (AHIMA, 2011). This includes patient documentation collected on any medium, such as WAVE files or x-ray images (AHIMA, 2011). Consequently, due to the incorporation of clinical, administrative, and other protected private health information, the designated record set is extremely different from the legal health record (AHIMA,

The only person that can disclose information of their own medical record is the patient. Some exception where the information can be use without the patient document law issues to protect the patient concern as Criminal Acts, Legal Ordered, Communicable Diseases and Mandated.

For a plaintiff to triumph a claim of medical malpractice for negligence, four elements must be established. The first element is proving the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. The second is to show that the defendant breached the duty to the plaintiff. The third is to show that the plaintiff was harmed and experienced damages. Finally, the fourth is to show that the plaintiff was harmed by the actions of the defendant (Greenberg, 2009).

Confidentiality Issues: all patient information must be kept confidential and shared only with the appropriate staff involved in the care of the patient. Patient records must be kept out of sight so that for example the cleaning crew cannot look at it and other patients cannot view it. Discussing the case with anyone outside the medical office. HIPAA is for the protection, use, and disclosure of protected health information (Ramutkowski, Booth, Pugh, Thompson, &, 2008).

Jessica is the director of Health Information and Technology Services at General Hospital. At this facility, patient records are hybrid. The hospital was named as a defendant in a medical malpractice lawsuit by a former patient (i.e., plaintiff). The trial is scheduled during the next week. During the discovery process, the plaintiff’s health records and an incident report relative to the plaintiff’s hospital stay were obtained by the plaintiff’s attorney. The plaintiff’s attorney has made it clear that she intends to have the health records and the incident report admitted into evidence and, further, that metadata associated with the electronic portions of the plaintiff’s records will be sought.

The first reason, the provider’s attorney requests the protected health information during a normal course of business, such as to prepare for a medical malpractice lawsuit. The second reason, patient healthcare records or protected health information are disclosed information pursuant to a lawsuit court order. A subpoena signed by a judge is sufficient to permit disclosure of all healthcare records in the court of law.

Medical malpractice happens when a hospital, doctor or other health care professional, perform negligence through their practice and causes an injury to a patient, it may be the result of mistakes in diagnosis, management and after care or health management. (Podgers, 2007)