“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor, or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient” (ABPLA). The problem with medical malpractice involves malpractice claims, unnecessary procedures, the general system, communication issues, and reform efforts. Although medical malpractice is a significant concern, much is being done to address this problem. Many medical practice claims have been made over the years. Around 85,000 claims are made yearly (Berger). The total number of medical malpractice payouts is 12,142 (Gamble, 2013). New York is the highest ranked state for payouts. New York spent $763,088,250 on the payouts alone (Gamble, 2013). The other forty-nine states are significantly below $400,000,000. “Forty percent of medical malpractice claims lack any evidence of either a medical error or patient injury” (Lazarus, 2013). Another major medical malpractice problem is the unnecessary procedures being ordered. The malpractice insurers have recommended women to have yearly mammograms. These mammograms cover the cost of lawsuits for late diagnoses of breast cancer but not the health risks the mammograms present (Avraham, 2011). Fear is also a problem in the malpractice realm. This results in more tests and procedures. Doctors that have been practicing for over five years order more tests to lessen the risk of misdiagnosing and the lawsuits that may come the physician’s way (Marchione, 2011). During the research, Marchione presented this statistic: one fifth of tests bone and joint specialists order are promoted by the fear of being sued (2011). The best care is important to patients. The patient values his doctor prescribing the most effective tests and beneficial ... ... middle of paper ... ... to the medical malpractice problem. One way is to have profit companies with expertise in evidence-based medicine to buy or license guidelines from the government. This way the doctors would have immunity from malpractice cases (Avraham, 2011). Rather than public regulators, private regulators would discourage expensive procedures, because of this the doctors would less likely invest in unnecessary procedures that could potentially harm the patients (Avraham, 2011) Furthermore, although medical malpractice is a major problem, much is being done to resolve the issue. Looking through the claims, unnecessary procedures, systems blames, communication problems, and reform efforts, new information is being brought in to correct the issues involved in these areas. Hopefully in the next few years we will continue to see growth in solving this medical malpractice problem.
In the healthcare industry, medical malpractice has a history that extends way beyond the days of physicians carrying a black bag full of medication and remedies to treat patients. Health care has since evolved to digital technology that can detect and treat disease. However, before physicians had advanced machinery making medical diagnosis, doctors had their textbooks and medical judgment to rely on for treatment. Physicians are human and medical mistakes can happen, but should not happen due to negligence. With that said, medical malpractice lawsuits are not the latest trend in the United States. According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, medical malpractice lawsuits first appeared in the United States beginning in the 1800s. However, before the 1960s, legal claims for medical malpractice were rare, and had little impact on the practice of medicine. Since the 1960s the frequency of medical malpractice claims has increased; and today, lawsuits filed by aggrieved patients alleging malpractice by a physician are relatively common in the United States.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in the United States due to a preventable medical error. A report written by the National Quality Forum (NQF) found that over a decade after the IOM report the prevalence of medical errors remains very high (2010). In fact a study done by the Hearst Corporation found that the number of deaths due to medical error and post surgical infections has increased since the IOM first highlighted the problem and recommended actions to reduce the number of events (Dyess, 2009).
There has been a shortage of physicians, lack of inpatient beds, problems with ambulatory services, as well as not having proper methods of dealing with patient overflow, all in the past 10 years (Cummings & francescutti, 2006, p.101). The area of concern that have been worse...
Medical malpractice has become a controversial social issue. From a doctor’s standpoint, decisions and preventative actions can alter the medical malpractice lawsuits filed against them. In order to protect their career and professional life medical malpractice insurance is available. Medical professional liability insurance, sometimes known as medical malpractice insurance, is one type of professional liability insurance. “Professional liability refers to liability that arises from a failure to use due care and the standard of care expected from a person in a particular profession, in this case a doctor, dentist, nurse, hospital or other health-related organization” (Brandenburg, 2014).
Instead of relying on the outside business and companies or hospitals the medical professionals decided to grain corporate control of their practice based on the corporate practice doctrine. Allowing licensure alleviated the intense competition in medical practice.
Day by day medical technology is improving, unfortunately so are cases of nursing malpractice. By understanding the laws that governs nursing practice, it will help the nurse protect client’s rights and reduce the risk of nursing liability (Sommer, 2013, p. 23). It’s usually necessary to prove that the nurse was negligent to prove nursing malpractice. The Joint Commission defines negligence as a “failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would under similar circumstances” and malpractice as “improper or unethical conduct or unreasonable lack of skill by a holder of a professional or official position. Sommer defines professional negligence as the failure of a person who has a professional training to act in a reasonable and prudent manner (p. 24).
Medical malpractice is like a virus that spreads contagiously and has been going on for many years. This phenomenon has caused deaths, diseases, and injuries due to the negligence of medical professionals towards their patients. Hospitals are losing their reputation and doctors are losing lots of their money. Usually after the doctor does something wrong, the patient should file a lawsuit against them and the hospital. One way to prevent malpractice is to pick younger doctors who are more careful with what they are doing. Malpractice is an occurrence that should be stopped soon or many injuries could occur to the patient due to the doctor’s negligence.
Before starting this course and before reading the first section of Wall of silence: The untold story of the medical mistakes that kill and injure millions of Americans, I did not have much awareness of medical errors. My awareness extends to hearing stories about medical utensils and supplies being left in patients after surgery or hearing stories of patient receiving the wrong dose of medication, but hearing stories about the extent of deaths related to medical errors left me astonished. I was in awe reading the amount of deaths reported each year related to medical errors, not including the errors that are not reported. This book brings about the awareness and importance of implementing strategies to decrease medical errors.
A proper way to define defensive medicine is the action of a physician recommending a diagnostic test or treatment that is not necessarily the best option for the patient, but instead an option that may potentially prevent the physician from being sued for medical malpractice (Tuers, 2013). This type of treatment has began as early as the 1800s but not until the 1960’s was it seen as an issue. It wasn’t until that time period that defensive medicine was recognized as an issue. Before then, physicians were self employed and their motives were rarely questioned by patients (Tuers 2013). Surprisingly, the United States is the only major country that holds the physicians personally and financially liable for their own medical errors. This could be one of the main reasons for the prevalence of this malpractice. Defensive medicine as an unlawful act all began with the increasing number of medical malpractice lawsuits. Medical malpractice is similar to defensive medicine in the sense that it is the combination of...
Medical malpractice cases are difficult for the families who have lost their loved one or have suffered from severe injuries. No one truly wins in complicated court hearings that consist of a team of litigation attorneys for both the defendant and plaintiff(s). During the trial, evidence supporting malpractice allegations have to be presented so that the court can make a decision if the physician was negligent resulting in malpractice, or if the injury was unavoidable due to the circumstances. In these types of tort cases, the physician is usually a defendant on trial trying to prove that he or she is innocent of the medical error, delay of treatment or procedure that caused the injury. The perfect example of being at fault for medical malpractice as a result of delaying a procedure is the case of Waverly family versus John Hopkins Health System Corporation. The victims were not compensated enough for the loss of their child’s normal life. Pozgar (2012) explained….
Rising health care costs have caused a national crisis, and all agree we must embrace reform. President Obama has initiated his national health care plan in the hopes of decreasing some of the inflated costs. When attempting to resolve this issue, one must always address the root of the problem. A large portion of these inflationary costs stem from malpractice lawsuits, and so begins the debate for tort reform: legislation which would cut the costs of health care by reducing the risk of civil litigation and exposure to fraudulent claims (“What”). However, the real factor at hand and the real cause of the industry’s high costs does not come solely from the cost incurred from these lawsuits, but from over-expenditures on the part of doctors, who over-test and over-analyze so as to safeguard themselves from the threat of malpractice lawsuits. Thus, large public support exists for tort reform. While the proposed legislation enacted through tort reform could cut the costs of health care and positively transform the industry, it is ultimately unconstitutional and could not withstand judicial scrutiny.
In the medical ethics case study given to me, Justin is new nurse at a hospital and has become great help to the other employees but he makes mistakes often. When it comes to medical ethics, it is important to do what you know is morally correct. We all want to be good Christians and make the right decisions but sometimes those decisions will affect others negatively. We may not always act how we ought to but those decisions do affect who we are.
Generally speaking, negligence, error, incompetence, these are the words commonly associated with malpractice, yet many have no idea what the true definition states. Malpractice can be defined, according to the legal nurse consultant of Independent Medical Evaluations Inc., Jan Parrish (2010), “as a violation of professional duty or a failure to meet a standard of care or failure to use the skills and knowledge of other professionals in similar circumstances.... ... middle of paper ... ...
When it comes to personal injury cases, medical malpractice can cause a number of devastating effects, including long-lasting injuries requiring prolonged treatment. Patients put their trust in healthcare professionals and when that trust is broken it can be difficult to determine the next steps. For clients in Cincinnati, contacting The Law Offices of Katzman, Logan, Halper and Bennett, LPA in the aftermath of medical malpractice can provide peace of mind to patients still reeling from their experiences.
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...