Examples Of Negligence In Healthcare

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.

Healthcare providers should not be exempt from allegations of committing intentional torts. “The classic intentional tort in medical practice is forcing unwanted medical care on a patient ("Intentional Torts," n.d.).” Intentional torts can meet the requirements for civil and criminal action due to the nature in which the act was accomplished, and its qualified deliberate intent. To successfully sue another person for an intentional tort, intent, acting, and actual cause all have to be present (Legal Dictionary, n.d.).

-- Misdiagnosing a patient is very serious, it could lead to consequences. When a doctor's diagnosis error leads to incorrect treatment, delayed treatment, or no treatment at all, a patient's condition can be made much worse, and they may even die.

One approach to minimize large amounts of tort claims for medical malpractice is to put a cap on non-economical awards. Tort reform is the response; a tort is a civil lawsuit for damages over private wrongs other than breach of contract. According to Lau and Johnson (2014), a tort can be categorized into three categories: intentional tort, when tortfeasor acted with intent, negligence, if the tortfeasor did not act intentionally, but failed to act as a reasonable person, and lastly, strict liability, if the tortfeasor is engaged in certain activities, which caused injury or death due to it. The massive medical malpractice cases across the nation have made defending frivolous lawsuits is a national problem; ultimately, the general public

What is negligence? In many states, the term is reserved for malpractice claims against doctors, lawyers, architects and accountants: The concept of professional negligence applies to other professionals such as nurses. As a practical matter, although, this is often a meaningless distinction because malpractice and negligence lawsuits generally contain the same elements and carry the same potential for serious legal penalties. (Calfee, 2010, pg. 34)

Alexis- Negligence and Intentional torts both contribute to the health industry. Negligence is something that most people sue for, and all health professionals should understand how to avoid these situations. For example: the physician should make sure he/she has a complete understanding about the individual medical need, before releasing them. By doing this they can avoid the chances of misdiagnosing or creating mire problems. Protecting the patients right is and should a mission for each health provider to avoid a potential law suit. All professional should be knowledgeable about the importance of intentional torts a how to avoid crossing that path. Fastidious discussion post for this module, keep up the good work.

Clinical negligence claims have been said to act as a `wake-up call’’ since usually it is only when a case is won that issues relating to malpractice are brought to surface. Moreover, case law demonstrates that it is usually only when clinical negligence claims are brought to the court are the judiciary provided with the opportunity to define

Patients put a lot of trust in their doctors and physicians. We believe that they are trained to diagnose properly. They are scientists who base their predictions on chemical and physical evidence and with years of school and training arrive at a conclusion. However, they are human and can make mistakes. Almost 20% of patients are misdiagnosed. Some are simple and innocuous while others can be life-threatening. The typical behavior for a trained physician who is not sure of their answer is to resist the quick diagnosis and recommend the patient to a specialist or another doctor for a second opinion. Misdiagnosis can lead to incorrect treatments and unneeded surgeries, all the while, putting the patient at risk and missing the opportunity to treat the real disease while allowing the condition to worsen.

Errors that qualify as medical malpractice will typically fall into one of several categories. These include a failure or delay in diagnosing a patient's condition, misreading X-rays, prescribing the wrong pharmaceuticals, failing to warn a patient of the risks or side effects of a procedure, performing services without the patient's informed consent, and making a mistake during surgery or childbirth.

On the other hand, malpractice liability is a valid concern because in such “cases hospitals can be held liable for allowing an incompetent physician to provide services in the facility” ( Harris, 2014, p 134) . In this type of case, a patient can not only sue the physician for the alleged negligence in diagnosis or treatment, patient

Medical malpractices are usually presented when patients claim they have been injured or wounded because of deprived medical care or incorrect findings from a healthcare worker such as a

Professional Negligence refers to the failure to perform a duty competently either by commission or omission. Negligence in a clinical setting can result to patient falls, burns, administering wrong medication, or harm caused by defects in an apparatus used by the health care provider. These all lead to injury to a patient, and in this setting, injury may include not only physical harm but also mental anguish and other invasions of the patient's rights and privileges. In any case, negligence must be proven to have occurred and may be in any of the different forms

medical injuries are a result of medical malpractice, yet these mistakes are not viewed as a public

This includes absence of safety precautions, lack of protocols, and poorly coordinated patient care. It may also indicate problems with insurance networks, which can delay treatment.

Torts of negligence are breaches of duty that results to injury to another person to whom the duty breached is owed. Like all other torts, the requirements for this are duty, breach of duty by the defendant, causation and injury(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). However, this form of tort differs from intentional tort as regards the manner the duty is breached. In torts of negligence, duties are breached by negligence and not by intent. Negligence is conduct that falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). The standard measure of negligence is the universal reasonable person standard. The assumption in this case is that a reasonable