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Malpractice in healthcare fields
Technical advancement in medical field
Malpractice in healthcare fields
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Legal and Ethical Implications of Medical Malpractice The rapid revolution in the field of medicine in the last century has significantly impacted the mode of medical practice, doctor-patient relationships and fundamental values of medicine. The physicians are at the crossroads facing many ethical and legal challenges in their day to day practice and on the other hand, the medical fraternity is becoming more and more dependent on technology and market forces that tend to influence the decision-making process of the providers. The fundamental obligation that the doctors must keep the patients’ interest above everything else becomes the basis for medical malpractice laws, which also gives the undue opportunity for the patients to exploit …show more content…
Doctor should be negligent
3. Doctor's negligence should cause the injury
4. Injury must lead to specific damage
The John Parker case in discussion is a good example of gross negligence by the physician.
Case Scenario: Mr. John Parker purchased health coverage with Littleville Family Health Plan. He selected Dr. Susan Green as his PCP because she was listed by his Plan. Mr. Parker was diagnosed with Swinehausen's syndrome and was prescribed Pentamite (10 milligrams) once a day for three weeks by Dr. Green. The risks and benefits of Pentamite, as well as the alternative forms of treatment, were explained by Dr. Green and Mr. Parker consented to take the Pentamite after listening to the risks and benefits. Dr. Green both orally and in writing gave a wrong dosage of the medicine from one of her samples boxes. This negligent act of Dr. Green has resulted in the death of Mr. Parker due to a heart attack. As the personal representative of his estate, Parker's wife filed a lawsuit in state court against Dr. Green and the Plan. Ethical and Legal Implications Involved
Patient’s
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Many health care facilities nowadays have constituted institutional ethics committees and have in-house or on-call trained ethicists to assist health care providers, caregivers, and patients with difficult issues arising in medical care.
2. When legal and risk management issues arise in an organization, the administrators or sometimes risk managers should work together as a team with the patients and their families to reduce the liability.
3. Healthcare organizations should set standards and policies in place and define rules of a reasonable standard of care, take written consents as and when required, avoid the provision of in hand medications especially with adverse side effects, Proper documentation to avoid legal complications.
The MCO is not legally liable in this case as they have clearly stated about the physicians not being directly employed by them. The MCO has a good chance of not being prosecuted because of the proper documentation in place, but they should contact a risk manager to go through the next steps to avoid such lawsuits and should run proper background checks on the future physicians, have written policies in place for a reasonable standard of
No further information was given and the questionnaire was not filled out. LAA’s doctors (Defendant), Dr. Preau and Dr. Dennis, submitted referral letters for on his behalf. The letter from Dr. Dennis and Dr. Preau stated that both of them had worked with Dr. Berry and they highly recommend Dr. Berry as an anaestheologist. Based on the letter and recommendations, Kadlec hired him. Approximately a year later, Berry again started using Demerol. On work at Kadlec, he committed gross negligence resulting in severe brain damage to patient. Due to this incidence Kadlec learned that Dr. Berry had been fired from Lakeview. Kadlec first settled Dr. Berry’s malpractice case and then filed suit against Lakeview, its shareholders, and LMC for intentional negligence and strict responsibility misrepresentation based on LMC’s omission of material facts in the letter to Kadlec. The district court supported Plaintiff’s theory. LMC’s moved for summary
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….
While working at the OB-GYN department in the hospital, Dr. Vandall, as a Vice Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, learned that another employee of the hospital, Dr. Margaret Nordell was engaged in a level of treatment that was unethical and violated accepted standards of care. It was his duty to the hospital and to the patients, to monitor the competence of his staff members. Although he tried to take the proper steps to deal with it within the hospital, he ended up reporting this to the North Dakota Board of Medical Examiners. It was concluded by the Board that the treatment of Dr. Nordell was gross negligence and they suspended her license to practice medicine.
Medical malpractice has been a controversial issue in the healthcare setting for centuries. Apparently, there are laws to protect patients’ from medical mistakes and errors that are the result of negligence. After researching various laws and medical liability cases based on allegations of negligence, this paper will discuss and provide details on the medical malpractice case of Dorrence Kenneth versus Charleston Community Memorial Hospital. The case analysis will briefly explain information from the beginning to end, including: laws that were violated, codes in the healthcare industry that were breached by the physician and Charlesto...
Medical error occurs more than most people realize and when a doctor is found negligent the patient has the right to sue for compensation of their losses. Debates and issues arise when malpractice lawsuits are claimed. If a patient is filing for a medical malpractice case, the l...
Slosar, J. P. (2004). Ethical decisions in health care. Health Progress. pp. 38-43. Retrieved from http://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/january-february-2004/ethical-decisions-in-health-care
For hundreds of years doctors and other medical professionals have gotten away with little to no punishment when doing wrong in the medical field. Medical Malpractice happens in the care of the reckless medical professional and can be stopped by the correct supervision and discipline. Although medical malpractice is something huge, it could be eliminated by just taking a little extra time and review the care that is being given to a patient. Would you allow someone to give the care you’re giving to others, to your own family? You need the bed, so you discharge early. Patients aren’t properly informed. Legal documents aren’t thoroughly explained. Shortage of staff, hospital downsizing, or mergers. (“Nursing Center”) The only thing that the medical team should be worried about it the care of all of the patients. The medical field would become more advanced if the actual medicine was practiced the right way. Lives are being compromised everyday with incompetent doctors, practicing medicine. Medical Malpractice can be solved with the buckling down of the medical professionals, and the administration that watch over these professionals. Medicine is a complicated field, where lives, money, and careers are put on the line for such an important matter. Together, we can lessen, even eliminate Medical Malpractice all
Providers must act in the best interest of the patient and their basic obligation is to do no harm and work for the public’s wellbeing. A physician shall always keep in mind the obligation of preserving human life. Providers must communicate full, accurate and unbiased information so patients can make informed decisions about their health care. As a result of their recommendations, providers are responsible for generating costs in health care but do not generate the need for those expenses. Every hospital has both an ethical as well as a legal responsibility to provide care, even if the care may be uncompensated.
The act of medical responsibility originated in Rome and England dating back to the time of 2030 BC. The act states that a learned professional should always care with responsibility and care toward their profession. Around the year of 1200 AD, Roman law considered medical malpractice to be wrong and expanded their views about it all throughout Europe. It was said by the Code of Hammibal that if a person commits malpractice knowingly or unknowingly they would lose their job, hand, and an eye. Malpractice had also occurred throughout the U.S around the 19th century, due to the negligence of the state’s governments. Medical malpractice litigation has since been sustained for a century and a half by an interacting combination of 6 principal factors.” “Three of these factors are medical: the innovative pressures on American medicine, the spread of uniform standards, and the advent of medical malpractice liability insurance.” “Three are legal factors: contingent fees, citizen juries, and the nature of tort pleading in the United State.” (Mohr). The U.S is very familiar with malpractice b...
Ohio Dep’t of Rehabilitation & Correction are the poor-quality patient care that Tomcik received and Tomcik’s health being at risk. Once engaged in a doctor-patient relationship, physicians are obligated to provide the best possible care for the patient by utilizing their skills and knowledge as expected from a competent physician under the same or similar conditions (“What Is a Doctor’s Duty of Care?” n.d.). However, in Tomcik’s situation, Dr. Evans did not deliver high-quality care, for he administered a perfunctory breast examination and thus did not follow standard protocols. There is evidence of indifference conveyed by Dr. Evans, and the lack of proper care towards Tomcik is an issue that can be scrutinized and judged appropriately. Additionally, Tomcik’s health was at risk due to the failure of a proper physical evaluation and the incredibly long delay in diagnosis and treatment. The negligence from Dr. Evans, along with the lack of medical attention sought out by Tomcik after she had first discovered the lump in her breast, may contribute to Tomcik’s life being in danger as well as the emotional anguish she may have felt during that time period. Overall, the incident of Tomcik’s expectations from the original physician and other employees at the institution not being met is an ethical issue that should be dealt with
Providing the steps to ethically sound excellent care, healthcare providers must acknowledge first the legal and ethical matters involved with proper investigation and then devise a plan for best possible action recognizing the rights of the patient and its benefits followed by the application of the chosen intervention with positive outcome in mind (Wells, 2007). Delivery of excellent and quality of care at a constant level (NMC, 2008) must be marked in any responsibilities and duties of the care provider to promote exceptional nursing practice. Codes of nursing ethics and legal legislation have addressed almost all the necessary actions in making decisions in consideration to the best interest of the patient. Nurses must make sure that they are all guided by the set standard to lead their action and produce desirable and ethically sound outcomes.
When evaluating medical malpractice, this can be performed by any healthcare professional. It is easy to classify this to be misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, even not taking the time to evaluate a patient properly. When practicing medicine it is important that all measures be taken when a patient is showing signs of infection or having any adverse reaction to medication. In the case study below this is a prime example of the importance of checking patient progression.
“Research has found that just 1 percent of U.S. doctors are at fault in a third of the medical malpractice claims paid out in 2016.”( manning) this quote is elaborating on how the number of malpractice cases may be high but the percentage of doctors convicted of malpractice is very low at 1%. A doctor's main goal is to provide care for their patients and give them the best care of their ability to help them. When becoming a doctor you have to take an oath about providing care to any patient no matter what. A lot of patients have good outcomes and different recoveries from treatments but that's just depending on the treatment and the individual. With only 1% of doctors actually being convicted of malpractice it makes the number of cases not look as reliable because a case can be filed but dropped. Malpractice in this case is being blown out of
In conclusion, there are numerous legal and ethical issues apparent in the nursing practice. Nurses should study and be as informed as they can with ethics and legality within their field in order to ensure no mistakes occur. Ethical issues vary based on patient’s views, religion, and environment. Nurses are influenced by these same views, but most of the time they are not the same as the patients. As a nurse we must learn to put the care of our patients and their beliefs, rights, and wishes before our own personal