Common Types of Malpractice Involving Negligence

Medical malpractice is a large field. Not all malpractice is due to negligence, but a large part of the malpractice that is falls into several categories, principally failed or misdiagnosed treatment, substandard care, substandard treatment, and botched surgery. In some countries, lack of informed consent is also considered negligent, as well as betrayal of doctor/patient confidentiality. The laws differ slightly, but uniformly agree that the conduct of the medical professional must be on par with the competency and professionalism consistent with the specialized training, experience, and care of a reasonably prudent physician in the same or similar circumstances. This constitutes the "standard of care" or "professional duty" that a physician owes to his or her patient.

In the case of failed and/or misdiagnosed treatment, malpractice can often be traced back to conflicts of interest. Acting in the patient's best interest may conflict with the physician's, or even interests of third parties, like insurers or hospitals. The ideal would be to keep the patient's interest at the top of the heap. Appearance of conflict of interest, lack of financial incentive, the acceptance of gifts from pharmaceutical houses, not disclosing mistakes made, or failure to keep up learning in clinical skills all fall into causality for failed and/or misdiagnosed treatment.

Substandard care or treatment is also an issue. Some health care workers, for example, may fear contracting fatal occupational infections and refuse to care for persons so afflicted. Fears for personal safety are important, but can be countered by institutions who can provide proper training, equipment and supervision to enable the health care workers to proceed properly with their jobs.

In the cases of botched surgery, if there is a situation where a student physician is introduced as a physician, or patients not told that trainees are performing procedures, misrepresentation has occurred. If a physician is impaired by alcohol or drug abuse, patients can be placed at risk. A surgeon and the medical team working with him or her must be responsible during invasive procedures. Everyone hears stories about the sponge that got left behind in the patient, but botched surgeries are no laughing matter.

Finally, informed consent is a very important area to consider. Other ethical issues such as maintaining confidentiality, avoiding breeches of confidentiality, and staying in tune with the hospital ethics committee are very important, if medical negligence is to be avoided.

For more information regarding medical negligence and clinical negligence, visit the experts at www.patientlawyers.com today!