Medical malpractice refers to the negligent behavior by medical professional practicing medicine in such a way that substandard provision of medical facilities causes harm to a patient. This is unsafe and unhealthy for the patients who then accuse the medical professionals of treating them with negligence.
There are a number of causes of medical malpractice, which I will list down below.
Common Causes of Medical Malpractice
Medical negligence occurs due to a number of reasons usually traced back to the medical professionals handling your medical care:
Misdiagnosis
One of the most usual causes is the misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose a medical illness. I want to share a personal experience here. A business associate of mine was incorrectly diagnosed with small intestine cancer. He was rich so he spent a good fortune on his treatment. Later, it was confirmed he only had gastric problems. He hired the best Miami misdiagnosis lawyer and won the lawsuit against the hospital.
Unnecessary testing
Medical malpractice can also take place when expensive tests or valuable information is skipped in efforts to portray a condition less severe than it is, to cut down costs. This type of activity is very dangerous and is often life-threatening for the patients. This then leads to severe deterioration in the conditions of the patient before any curative measures can be taken.
Surgical errors and overworked staff
Another important reason includes surgical or anesthetic errors. As inflation and recession effect all walks of life, the medical profession isn’t exempt from economic throwback. For example, doctors working more hours, with less help from others in the medical community, taking more patients indeed save costs to a hospital. However, it leads to a decline in the quality of medical care provided to a patient, resulting in higher cases of malpractice. This is common malpractice where patients are not treated in an efficient manner, which questions the reliability of the treatments given to the patients.
Poorly trained medical staff a major risk to clinics and hospitals
Another trend, which is prevalent these days, is hospitals hiring poorly trained staff to care for patients. Normally, the hospital should provide new staff with additional training to handle critical matters. In addition, defective and outdated medical equipment can lead to serious mishaps. It has been estimated that over 400,000 patients every year suffer because of obsolete equipment.
In addition to that, incorrect medical prescriptions and surgical conditions can also lead to medical malpractice. These usually result from providing patients with incorrect doses of medicine or providing them with a fatal combination of medication, which leads to them being harmed or sometimes even resulting in death.
Legal Considerations of Medical Malpractice
Every state has laws and limitations concerning medical malpractice lawsuits and claims. According to the Miami medical malpractice laws, “Medical negligence litigation requires a trial attorney to prove that accepted standards of care were breached and that those breaches led to injury or death.”
In medical malpractice, the patient can collect three types of damages in court:
- Compensatory damages: This is financial compensation for the medical costs incurred due to the malpractice as well as losses earned due to taking time off from work.
- Non-economic damages: This type of accusation is made for the entire physical and emotional trauma that a patient has been through because of the medical professional.
- Punitive damages (in certain cases only): These can be claimed when it has been proven that the medical personnel acted negligently on purpose or was involved in fraud while treating the patient.
Conclusion
Last but not least, try to make sure you have all the necessary information before you get involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit and seek proper professional help. The court will rule in favor of you only on the basis of evidence.
Furthermore, if you are a medical professional, looking into medical malpractice insurance is advisable which will take care of almost everything on your behalf. Not just that, but these insurance policies will save you from future struggles of keeping up the allegations made against you.