Doctors and physicians all over the world have a duty to provide a certain standard of medical care for their patients. This includes many aspects including patient care and patient safety. In fact, most medical professionals around the world take an oath to do no harm when they get their medical training and license.
But what happens when doctors fail to provide their duty of medical care? Well, whether it was done purposefully or accidentally, they could cause a lot of harm with irrecoverable consequences. This is exactly what constitutes medical malpractice.
In the following article, we’ll go over the most common causes of medical malpractice, what factors contribute to these mistakes, and some ways to help prevent them.
Diagnostic Errors
Considered one of the most common causes of medical malpractice claims, diagnostic errors account for more than half of all malpractice claims.
According to Atlanta medical malpractice attorney Ron Hilley, The most common types of diagnostic errors include misdiagnosis, miscommunication, failure to follow up on laboratory tests or imaging studies ordered by doctors, and failure to report test results that show that a condition is present after reporting that it wasn’t previously.
Some factors contributing to these mistakes include the lack of education or training; insufficient time spent with patients; fatigue; stress; too many patients being seen at once; financial incentives (such as bonuses) tied to how quickly doctors can get through their patient load; poor working conditions (for example, if there aren’t enough staff members); and inadequate facilities like outdated medical equipment or office space.
Fortunately there are ways these types of mistakes can be prevented: having a close doctor-patient relationship where both parties communicate openly about each other’s needs and expectations helps ensure quality care from start to finish.
Medication Mistakes
Medication errors are a common cause of medical malpractice. According to MDLinx, as many as 7 to 9 thousand people die in the United States yearly because of medication mistakes.
These errors can result from:
- Inaccurate or insufficient information provided by the patient.
- Incomplete, inaccurate, or insufficient information provided by the doctor.
- The pharmacy dispensing the wrong drug from its supply, or using an outdated prescription (i.e., giving you medication that is no longer effective).
- A drug company making an error with its packaging and labeling processes (for example, putting a different dosage on your pills than what you were prescribed).
Injury During Treatment
As we established in the beginning of this article, a doctor or hospital is liable for medical malpractice if they fail to provide a standard of care.
A standard of care is the level that most doctors in your area would provide for your condition and symptoms, whether you’re seeing a specialist or general practitioner.
For example, if you were diagnosed with a heart infection, the diagnosis and treatment plan would be different depending on whether you were an otherwise healthy person who ran too hard during exercise or had pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
To provide adequate care in this case, doctors should consider what other specialists might have prescribed based on similar patient profiles, along with their own expertise as well.
If they fail to take these factors into account when determining what course of treatment would be best for their patient’s circumstances (or choose not to consider them at all), then they may end up misdiagnosing or under-treating an illness which ends up causing complications down the line—this can lead to long term damage and even death in some cases.
While there may be many causes behind medical malpractice claims against doctors and hospitals alike; one thing’s for sure: when enough people start suffering because one person made bad decisions about how he/she does business–something definitely needs fixing.
Surgical or Anesthesia Errors
One of the most dangerous medical malpractice types are surgical or anesthesia errors.
How can this type of mistake happen? A few examples would include:
- The wrong patient is operated on or given anesthesia.
- The correct procedure is performed, but there was an error in the way it was done (e.g., a wrong incision made).
- A doctor misses an injury and does not recognize it during surgery.
If you think that you have been a victim of such an error and want to file a claim, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Make sure that you don’t delay too long before filing your claim—there may be time limits depending on where you live and the specifics of your case.
- Talk with other patients who have had similar procedures done at the same hospital as yours so that you can get more information about how safe it is for physicians at that facility.
- Be sure not just consider their opinions blindly; talk with several people before making any decisions about whether or not filing suit might be beneficial for yourself too! If possible talk with former employees who worked there so see if anything has changed recently due to new management policies.
These are the things you should know before visiting a doctor
Be prepared to ask questions
Doctors are busy people and have a lot on their minds.
It’s up to you, the patient, to make sure that your concerns are addressed and answered during the appointment.
Be prepared to speak up if you are concerned about something
If something doesn’t seem right or seems off, say so!
Your doctor should not be offended by your questions or comments; they’re there for you and want what’s best for you—even if sometimes it involves them telling you things that may be unpleasant or uncomfortable at first but ultimately prove helpful down the road (like having surgery).
If something is really bothering or worrying you, don’t hesitate in saying something; this is an important part of maintaining good health too!
Get a second opinion
You never know whether it’s possible that there was some kind of medical error made during treatment until after all possibilities have been ruled out through thorough investigation of all available data sources such as x-rays/images taken during surgery etc…
This can prove invaluable toward helping determine if someone has been harmed due being subjected unjustly negligent carelessness which could otherwise ruin lives forever!
Always check with another professional before making any decisions about whether or not someone may have been harmed from malpractice regarding their care/treatment plan because doing so could mean saving thousands upon thousands every year.