Malpractice or Poor Judgement? The practice of medicine has never claimed to be an exact science. In fact, it is very much a hit-and-miss situation. Taking into account these above factors, India seems to be on a destructive trend regarding their level of health care. Ever since private medical services fell under the Consumer Protection Act (COPRA) in April 1993, the number of malpractice suits filed against doctors has begun to soar. For example, in Kerala, approximately 1800 cases (15% of the total number of cases) have been filed. As Dr. Dipak Banerjee of the Indian Medical Association puts it: "It's degenerating into a kind of witch-hunt." For years the community of doctors across India was immune to charges of malpractice, …show more content…
We now have to see whether a patient comes alone for consultation or brings along his advocate." This problem could lead, and has led, to many others. Doctors may shun complicated cases where risk is high due to the delicate nature of the procedure, so as not to be hauled to court. This refusal to treat patients has already taken its toll on those involved in motor vehicle accidents, whose treatments are often very tedious. This brings us to the fulcrum of the issue: trying to hold doctors accountable for their actions. Is poor service better than no service at all? Is the case criminal negligence - or just a genuine error in judgement? This entire matter revolves around a central point in the Consumer Protection Act-- section 2 (1) (o) which declares "services means service of any description which is made available to potential users... It does not include rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of personal service." This statement clears government-run hospitals and doctors of any wrong-doing, due to the fact that much of their service is rendered free of charge. However, this does not clear the private sector hospitals which now perform approximately 70% of all out-patient services. Even still, the main problem with COPRA is its tendency to make doctors solely responsible for poor treatment. L. M. Kapur, president of the Association of Medical
“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
Clinical judgment is the clinical reasoning, which includes clinical decision-making, critical thinking, and a global grasp of the situation, coupled with nursing skills acquired through a process of integrating formal and informal experiential knowledge and evidence- based guidelines (AACN, n.d.). In the case of F.S., he was on isolation precautions due to his infection. The results from the cultures had yet to return, therefore the infection was not identified at that current moment. The registered nurse that was assigned to F.S. went into the room several times without wearing proper protective personal equipment. This nurse stated that if she wasn’t touching the site, she was not at risk. This was a bad clinical judgment. Unfortunately, this was not the first time this student nurse witnessed the lack of use of the personal protective equipment. What most nurses don’t seem to understand is that the risk of infection is not only towards the patient but towards the nurse as well as everyone the nurse encounters. Contact precautions were researched and found to be associated with activities likely to reduce transmission of resistant pathogens, such as fewer visits and better hand hygiene at the exit while exposing patients on contact precautions to less healthcare worker contact, less visitor contact, and potentially other unintended outcomes (Morgan et al, 2013). Although it can be depressive for the patient to become isolated due to an infection, this
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
On the 24th February 2000, Victoria was taken semi-conscious and suffering from; hypothermia, multiple organ failure and malnutrition, to a local church. The taxi driver that collected them from the church was so horrified at her condition, that he took them straight to A and E. Victoria died the following day.
The financial liability for the patient is daunting and may keep some from coming to the hospital for treatment and others leaving against medical advice (AMA).
Medical malpractice, the negligence of a health professional in diagnosing, treating, and or caring for a patient, is a specific tort law under the negligence torts. In the medical field, the tort reform has affected many people including doctors, lawyers, insurance company owners and workers, patients, and including other citizens. While large corporations, doctors, and other defendants are benefitting from caps on damages, that is limiting the amount of money that can be granted in court, plaintiffs, lawyers, and citizens are affected differently. Doctor Sage stated in an interview that he has, “never felt that caps on damages had a major effect on patients one way or the other” (“Could Malpractice”). This remark makes those injured question about
The Verdict (Lumet, Zanuck, & Brown, 1982) is a powerful film about medical malpractice and the concealment of evidence. A young woman arrived at a Catholic hospital to give birth. The admitting nurse noted in the patient’s history that the patient ate within one hour of admission. The anesthesiologist neglected to review the patient’s history prior to administering the anesthetic. (Patients cannot go under anesthesia safely if they have eaten within nine hours of the procedure.) The patient aspirated her stomach contents causing her to stop breathing. Without oxygen for several minutes, the patient became brain damaged and went into a persistent vegetative state. When the patient’s sister sued the anesthesiologist and archdiocese for
In this case, the accident is the proximate cause of Mrs. Smith’s injuries and the medical providers are the intervening cause, as their breach of duty exacerbated Mrs. Smith’s injury to the point of permanent disability and disfigurement.
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)
It is the patient's obligation to reject or deny any treatment with marked agree archives to maintain a strategic distance from any conceivable claims. The staff and Hapless healing center may confront a false detainment guarantee for the wounds the patient endured while attempting to get away. Expecting the patient was equipped, move ought to be made by discharging the patient since nobody ought to be held without wanting to. Thank you for
Imagine yourself lying on an operating table, motionless, quiet. Above, you notice people standing over you. You try to speak but the words just cannot come out. Your arms feel as if they are plastered to the table. You begin to stand up but feel as if weights are strapped to your back and you are bound to the table. Suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your midsection. In and out, you see a surgeon slicing your body open with a scalpel. Every motion the masked person makes is as if you are being torn apart from the inside out. One would hope this would simply be a nightmare and they will wake up and everything will be fine. In this instance, this person will
Imagine you are injured or sick and have sought a doctor’s help. Although you trusted your doctor, something, something seemingly very in control of the doctor, went wrong. You are angry and confused, but also think of the commonality of medical malpractice. So, why do doctors, who are supposed to help, harm? Though many flaws influence it, malpractice can be, and often is unintentional. Most doctors aren’t trained to harm their patients. Inexperience and lack of medical discovery led to unintentional suffering of the patient. Personal flaws, like lack of willingness to abandon previous medical methods and shortcomings in communication also harm patients. Further reasons why doctors harm are socio-medical understandings that breed hate, prejudices stemming from a society’s belief about certain people, such as the medical practice under the Nazi regime. Additionally, displayed in the case of Ignác Semmelweis, judgement of one to oneself can be detrimental to any progress one’s ideas could make. We will examine these concepts through Jerome Groopman’s “Flesh-and-Blood Decision Making”, Sherwin Nuland’s The Doctors’ Plague and Barbara Bachrach’s “In the Name of Public Health”. Those who practice medicine are, unfortunately, unfree from the imperfections that plague all of humanity. Through these intimate and varied faults, doctors do harm.
ways, like finding millions of excuses for never quite getting round to the task. Al-
The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that doctors can be sued for medical negligence in consumer courts set up under India's consumer protection act of 1986. The landmark judgment, delivered last week, caps the nine year old controversy over whether doctors providing medical services to patients on payment of fees can be held liable under this act.
worse health scenarios for the Indian people. How and why this is the case will be explained.