IP - Professional Liability and Medical Malpractice 3-5pgs not including title pg

Negligence and Malpractice

Introduction

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arn the basic concepts involved with negligence and medical malpractice claims.

Negligence

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erson would or would not do under given circumstances” (Pozgar, 2004, p. 33).

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at he or she is administering to a patient and then administers the wrong medication.

t negligence might occur. They include when one does the following (Pozgar, 2004):

uences of an act and does not exercise his or her best

• engages in certain behavior expected to involve unreasonable danger to others

t act

gly innocent one—can cause a patient a great deal of harm or perhaps even death.

Malpractice

Mr. Smith was just hired to work as a clerk in the risk management department of County General Hospital. As an employee in this department, Mr. Smith will primarily deal with any malpractice or negligence claims against hospital employees. It is his job to gather the necessary paperwork together for the file so that the legal counsel for the hospital can proceed with the claims being made. Mr. Smith wonders just how many cases of negligence and malpractice claims he might see working in this position. Wh exactly constitutes negligence, and what is a malpractice claim? To do his job to the best of his ability, Mr. Smith decides to do a little research so that he can le

Mr. Smith first researches the concept of negligence. From his reading, he knows th negligence is a type of tort, which is a civil or a personal wrong committed aga another person (Pozgar, 2004). In addition, he finds that a negligent act is the “unintentional commission or omission of an act that a reasonably prudent p

After thinking about this definition, Mr. Smith realizes that negligence is really a form of carelessness on the part of an individual or group of individuals, which strays what is considered to be the normal, most accepted way to deal with a situation (Pozgar, 2004). For example, negligence might occur if a nurse fails to check the medication th

Researching negligence even further, Mr. Smith notices that there are a few ways tha

• considers the conseq possible judgment

• fails to guard against a risk that should be appreciated

Using these guidelines, Mr. Smith realizes just how easy it is to commit a negligen if one is not careful. This is especially crucial in the health care industry because making any mistake—even a small, seemin

Mr. Smith now has a good idea of the basics of negligence, so he decides to move forward and look more into malpractice. He discovers malpractice is very similar to negligence and is sometimes used interchangeably to describe a negligent act. In fact, malpractice is defined as “the negligence or carelessness of a professional person such as a nurse, pharmacist, or physician” (Pozgar, 2004, p. 33).

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order the proper diagnostic test for a patient (Pozgar, 2004).

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ccurred, a successful malpractice claim is not likely (Medical Malpractice, 2004).

References

Medica http://injury.findlaw.com/medical-malpractice/medical-malpractice-law-

faq

Pozgar spects of health care administration (9th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Using this definition, Mr. Smith realizes just how many opportunities exist in the health care industry for medical malpractice to take place. It can encompass thin such as operating on the wrong body part, administering the wrong dosage of a medication, performing surgery on a patient without his or her consent to do so, failing to administer the proper medications, failing to follow up on test results, or failing to

As he reads further, Mr. Smith realizes also that for a malpractice claim to be successful, an injury must have occurred as a result of the negligent behavior. The claim would not be successful if an injury did not occur as a result of the negligent ac (Pozgar, 2004). In addition, if a person underwent a procedure but was not satisfied with the outcome, a malpractice claim would also probably be unsuccessful because outcomes of surgical procedures cannot be guaranteed. Unless an injury o

l malpractice – FAQ. (2007). Retrieved March 12, 2007, from FindLaw Web site:

, G. (2004). Legal a