Medical malpractice is when a doctor or other medical caregiver harms a patient because of a failure to provide quality, competent care. The subject of medical malpractice may be an individual physician or other professional, it may be a team of caregivers, or it may be a hospital, medical center, or other facility that failed to provide good care.
Medical malpractice suits are important in several ways. For individuals and their families, these suits can provide compensation that helps them cope with an injury or illness that resulted from malpractice. It also provides a sense of justice. But these suits are not just important for the individuals harmed by malpractice. They are also important for overall public health. They set standards for care that physicians and other professionals must consider when providing healthcare.
A breach of professional duty. A breach of duty occurs in the context of standards of care. Defining standards of care can be tricky, but in a malpractice case it must be shown that a medical professional violated these standards resulting in a breach of their professional duty to the patient. A professional duty to provide certain standards ...
In other words, when a doctor or other caregiver makes a mistake or fails to provide the right care, a patient can be harmed or even killed, and this is medical malpractice. This is both a medical and a legal concept, and for a patient to win a suit against a doctor or medical facility there must be evidence that the professional was negligent, ...
Medical malpractice is important because it helps provide justice and compensation for individuals but also because it forces medical professionals to take greater care with patients and to work up to a certain standard of care.
For example, negligence may have caused chronic pain, death, mental anguish, expensive additional medical bills, or an inability to go back to work and earn a living.
The existence of a medical relationship. First it has to be established that there was a professional, medical relationship between the patient and the individual or team accused of malpractice. This shows that there was a legal duty on the part of the professionals to provide reasonable care. This is easy to prove in most cases, as ...