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Medical malpractice is defined as "any act or omission by a physician during treatment of a patient that deviates from accepted norms of practice in the medical community and causes an injury to the patient" (Bal, 2009, p.340). Notability, while Bal (2009) defines this in the context of physicians, it is also important to realise that other medical practitioners, such as nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and occupational therapists, can also be subject to malpractice suits. The risks associated with an accusation of malpractice remain high, for example, in a recent report it was found that doctors in low risk specialty areas had a 75% chance of facing a malpractice claim, whereas those is high risk specialities had a 100% chance (Seabury, Lakdawalla, and Chandra, 2011). However, the incidence level of paid claims is reducing; in 2014 there were a total of 11,922 claims, a 4.3% decrease on the preceding year (Gamble, 2013). Defending a claim can be costly, which may explain why, in 2012, approximately 93% of all claims were settled out of court (Gamble, 2013). The most common claims related to delayed diagnosis, accounting for 33% of claims, followed by surgery related claims accounting for 24% of...
The basis of the legal framework for these cases is mainly rooted in common law, with decisions from previous cases acting as precedent (Budetti & Waters, 2005). However, as case law in one state does not apply in other states, this has resulted in many divergences between the states, although commonly principles apply (Bal. 2009; Budetti & Waters, 2005). Cases brought come under the category of tort law, which means wrong (Bal, 2009) and is the area of law dealing with cases where there is injury to people or property (Edwards and Wells, 2015). The tort of medical malpractices refers to a situation where there has been negligence on the part of the practitioner resulting in harm. For a negligence claim to have merit the basic concept is that an individual acting in a manner that was not sufficiently careful, and if they do not shown a suitable level of care, they should be held responsible for the harm they cause. This leads to the difficult issue of how it is determined who had a duty to whom, and…
References
Bal., B S. (2009). An Introduction to Medical Malpractice in the United States. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. 647(2), 339-347
Budetti, P P., Waters, T M. (2005). Medical Malpractice Law in the United States. Kaiser Foundation. Retrieved https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/medical-malpractice-law-in-the-united-states-report.pdf
Edwards, J S., Wells, P K., (2015), Tort Law. New York, Delmar Cengage Learning
Gamble, M. (2016). 29 Statistics on Medical Malpractice Payouts and Lawsuits. Beckers Hospital Review. Retrieved http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/29-statistics-on-medical-malpractice-payouts-and-lawsuits.html
Some researchers have suggested that increased liability not only encourages physicians to practice defensive medicine, but also undermines many patients access to much needed medical services (Hyman & Silver, 2004). Boulard (2002) cites many studies that clearly show the increasing costs of malpractice insurance affect specialist care. In 2002 alone more than 60 specialists at one critical care facility in Las Vegas left their jobs after another malpractice premium spike. The
Healthcare System in the USPresident Obama set about addressing the needs of the healthcare system in the US with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. In 2016, Obama wrote, that the main purpose of the ACA was to address the �long-standing challenges facing the US healthcare system related to access, affordability, and quality of care� (525). Obama might have meant well with the ACA, but the problems in the
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(Chizek, 2003) The Role legal nurse consultant may provide service in a number of roles, including but not limited to: Consulting expert Testifying expert Facility-based investigator Trainer and in-service presenter Peer reviewer Quality improvement, risk management, claims management Liability insurance marketer and clinical resource" (Chizek, 2003) As standards of care constantly change, medical and nursing staff must keep informed of current standard to develop and/or modify policies and procedures, which must be maintained and secured indefinitely. In the
The expectations for these kinds of changes will be to see gradual shifts at first. Where, it may not seem like anything is changing at the facility. However, over the course of time, these kinds of changes will be obvious in the quality of treatment that is being provided will improve. As a result, the strategy will take approximately one year to fully implement a change in the atmosphere of