Medical Tort System: Medical Malpractice Claims

For decades doctors have been revered, respected, and regarded as “saviors,” but what medical practitioners and health officials do not reveal is that there are some doctors that are unlawfully practicing medicine, and nothing is being done to stop them. Medical malpractice is the illegal or improper practice of medicine. Unfortunately, this is far too common. The people that are victims of malpractice often get no compensation for the problems a physician has created. Although doctors are trusted individuals and have a right to provide medical advice, perform surgeries, and prescribe medicine, patients should also be able to have more control and security in their medical dealings through new laws and regulations.

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

Findings from a 2012 Study of Medical Negligence Claiming in Scotland revealed that patient support and advice groups find that when a complaint is made to the NHS in relation to a medical injury a defensive attitude tends to be adopted in response to such complaints. According to Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, Chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, this defensive attitude is what leads to claims being raised against the NHS. He stated that the current clinical negligence regime is what prompts defensiveness within the NHS and that this problem will persist as long as the fear of litigation and stigma of settlement remains. In the literature reviewed there seems to be a general consensus that the requirement for the claimant

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

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.

Tort reform, being one of those platforms, is proposed as one solution to the rapidly increasing health care cost in the United States. Careful reform of medical malpractice laws can lower administrative costs and health spending. This will also lead to improved patient safety and steer physicians away from the costly practice of defensive medicine.

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

“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

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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)

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

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

First, let’s look into malpractice disputes. I will like to dissect the people that will be affected by malpractice issues

The first solution for medical malpractice is caps. caps simply are the compensation which is provided to people who was effected by medical malpractice. According to Bernstein.J.(2013) explained that “caps would mandate that all medical expenses and lost wages caused by malpractice are compensable, no more than a given amount, say USD 250,000, can be awarded for pain and suffering.”. Caps is a compensation in which an amount of money is given to patient who was effected. Caps started to spread gradually among countries for two main reasons, the first is to minimize or prevent lawsuits and the second one is to be a way to satisfy

Throughout the years, the patient and the doctor relationship has been labelled differently in terms of description. At first it was formed into a “common calling” that represented the doctors practicing medicine, towards their patients, as their jobs. There were strict regulations that were created in order to protect the patients, which is why all doctors take extreme precaution when performing any kind of medical care and utilizing their skill of expertise. Medical malpractice has risen in the past few years, which then influenced some changes to the law. Liability was established as well as negligence. In the society that we live in, a doctor’s job is mainly to provide adequate care, their skills and their best assessment in the professional practice that he/she are in and when they are negligent, embrace the responsibility that of their actions.