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Subtopics of medical malpractice
How important are medical errors
Subtopics of medical malpractice
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Malpractice is improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity or treatment, by a medical practitioner. Not a lot of people know what malpractice is or how it happens until it's too late and it's already happened to them. The number of medical malpractice suits filed each year in the United States tends to vary but the overall trend is that they are rising. Most people don't pay attention to malpractice until it's too late and it's happening to them and it's unbearable.The average annual number of suits filed each year is about 85,000, with the actual number of medical injuries estimated to be about one million per year. The amount of malpractice cases is rising and is continuing to rise and that's not good for the economy or for the civilians. “More than 250,000 people die each year in the United States because of medical errors.”( Manning) The issue is that malpractice is happening to often now and needs to come to a decline. I am a witness to this and so are both sides of my family with different …show more content…
“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
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….
He said, “Studies of specific types of error, too, have found that repeat offenders are not the problem. The fact is that virtually everyone who cares for hospital patients will make serious mistakes, and even commit acts of negligence, every year. For this reason, doctors are seldom outraged when the press reports yet another medical horror story. They usually have a different reaction: This could be me. The important question isn’t how to keep bad physicians from harming patients; it’s how to keep good physicians from harming patients” (658). Like Gawande asked—how do you keep good physicians from harming patients? Even the best of doctors and surgeons manage to make mistakes that led to being sued or even worst—they get to experience the death of their
Doctors are well respected within the realm of American society and are perceived with the highest regard as a profession. According to Gallup’s Honesty and Ethics in Profession polls, 67% of respondents believe that “the honesty and ethical standards” of medical doctors were “very high.” Furthermore, 88% of respondents polled by Harris Polls considered doctors to either “hold some” or a “great deal of prestige”. Consequently, these overwhelmingly positive views of the medical profession insinuate a myth of infallibility that envelops the physicians and the science they practice. Atul Gawande, in Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, provides an extensive view of the medical profession from both sides of the operating table
Explain the issue or dilemma using information from the readings in the book and other sources.
There is nothing traumatizing in the world has adding pain to where it already exists. This is the hell situation which every medical error victim is exposed. As the statistics are currently showing, the fatalities are increasing day by day. The trend seems to be hiding on the old ideology of “man is to error”. However this is not being tolerated any more and the American medical facilities are being held 100% accountable for the mistakes they make in their service delivery. Professional diligence is not a matter of negotiation in this generation and probably future generations. If a medical facility cannot treat people diligently, then the only better option remaining for that facility is to be made to account for the losses they have caused on affected patients and be closed down immediately.
According to the Journal of Patient Safety, “Between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who got to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.” Doctors are not perfect, but with some of the harms being preventable they should pay greater attention to what they are doing. To help prevent harm that could have been prevented they could check they have the right patient, double check they give the right medicine, and they could wash their hands.
One article stated that over the year’s specialty areas will concentrate on areas that are more cost-effective. These areas would consist of cancer, heart and neuroscience, cogitating the aging of the baby boomers. Care for cardiovascular patients will always be continual because people are still eating fried foods. Oncology services are rising due to patients being diagnosed with cancer. Our communities are seeing an increase of aging within the population and organizations are not set up for this ‘tsunami’ of patients. The service lines that will remain to be widespread are connected to the aging population—cardiovascular, arthritis, and sports injuries, as the baby boomers stay active longer. “The increasing scope of the continuum of care,
Doctors, like every other person, are human beings and thus they can make mistakes just like everyone else. However, when a doctor makes a mistake, it is much more serious than a fast food employee messing up your order. Doctors must follow a set of ethical guidelines in order to minimise the amount of mistakes they make. In a perfect world everyone follows the
I agree with Moses et al. (2013) when they wrote “As long as health care is caught in a triangle between patients, clinicians, and public health, the problems that are plaguing health care in the United States will continue,” (Moses et al., 2013). I agree with the documentary, Money and Medicine, (2012) when it supported the idea that Americans will continue to have the “do more” attitude as long as they are not educated about the risk to the procedures (PBS, 2012). Warner (2014) wrote about disassociation between healthcare and clients; I believe that supports both of the sources (Warner,
The contentious debate about our healthcare system is an epitome of the ongoing political circus in America. With the 2012 elections looming just around the corner, we can expect the vitriol to rise rapidly. Our country spends twice as much on health care per capita compared to other developed countries. The current system is so dysfunctional and projected spending will increase every year, putting an unbelievable strain to our fragile economy. Majority of health care dollars spending are channeled on to patients with chronic illnesses, many of which can be prevented. Unfortunately, medical doctors practicing preventive care are being squeezed out of the equation. The shortage of primary care doctors in America is inevitable because of limited income, lesser prestige, and fewer opportunities.
From my point of view, I think that increase in medical litigations is one of the most important factor of health care crisis. Americans spend far more per person on the costs of litigation than any other country in the world. The excess of the litigation system are an important contributor to “defensive medicine” – the costly use of medical treatments by a doctor for the purpose of avoiding litigation. As multimillion-dollar jury awards have become more commonplace in recent years, these problems have reached crisis proportions. Insurance premiums for malpractice are increasing at a rapid rate, particularly in states that have not taken steps to make their legal systems function more predictably and effectively. Doctors are facing much higher costs of insurance.
It was rightly said by Richard Seizer “If people understood that doctors weren't divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish.” For a patient, the doctor is like God. And, the almighty can never commit any mistake but that is what the patient thinks or believes. In reality, doctors are human beings. And, to err is human. Doctors may commit a mistake, but committing a mistake due to one’s own carelessness is defined as negligence. The Black law dictionary definition of negligence “conduct, whether of action or omission, which may be declared and treated as negligence without any argument or proof as to the particular surrounding circumstances, either because it is in violation of statue or valid municipal ordinance or because it is
Medical mishaps occur more often than people may believe. According to John Bonifield from CNN, Medical errors kill more than 250,000 people in the United States yearly. Due to this large number of deaths relating to medical errors, hospitals and organizations are working together to lower the high number of mishaps. “Awareness about the problem has increased, but we clearly have to do more to get a lot closer to zero,” said Mark Chassin, President of the Joint Commission. The statistics of medical errors prove that mistakes are happening more often than they should. Often, individuals believe that these tragedies will not occur to him or her. Reviewing the statistics of various doctor rules and surgery reviews will help understand the level of seriousness our hospitals have reached. Through an understanding of the causes of medical errors, the frequency of medical mishaps will decrease.
Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error.
Advocates of placing limits on damages for medical malpractice claims report the current system distorts economic impacts of the loss. The courts, and overly sympathetic juries, grant enormously generous and sometime frivolous awards. The aim of those who support reform, typically politicians, insurance carriers, health systems, hospitals and physicians, is to make it more difficult for injured people to file a lawsuit and limit the amount to money they can receive. (Bennett, 2017)