Medical Malpractice

What is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice happens when a doctor, another health-care professional, or the hospital itself causes injury to a patient through a negligent act or omission. To be considered medical malpractice in the legal sense of those words, three things are required:

• Actions or omissions (inaction) violating the proper medical “standard of care”; and
• That violation of the standard of care caused an injury to the patient; and
• The injury led to damages.

The proper standard of care can differ in each case and is generally measured by what is considered acceptable medical treatment or practice by health-care professionals in that community. Basically, did the doctor (or other health-care professional) provide acceptable treatment—treatment other doctors would consider prudent or necessary under similar circumstances?

Medical malpractice requires more than just an unfavorable outcome resulting from medical treatment. The negative outcome (injury) must have been caused by a doctor, hospital, or another health-care professional not following accepted standards of practice. In other words, there must have been some misconduct rising to the level of professional negligence or worse. And even if the proper standard of care was not followed, the patient must also show they were injured because of that violation. If the patient is injured but there was no misconduct, or if standards of care were violated but the patient was not injured, there will be no case for medical malpractice.

Finally, as a practical matter, to pursue a medical malpractice case, the injuries resulting from the professional negligence typically must be severe and the damages significant. The patient (or their loved one) must show that the injury caused death, disability, unusual pain or suffering, loss of income, or some similar result.

How Common is Medical Malpractice?

Although the rate of medical malpractice claims has declined over the last 20 years, a 2016 study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that medical negligence was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. Other facts and statistics relating to medical malpractice:

• 195,000 patients die in American hospitals each year because of preventable mistakes.
• There are 80,000 to 100,000 deaths each year in the United States resulting from an error in diagnosis.
• There are about 15,000 to 19,000 medical malpractice lawsuits filed each year in the United States.
• $38.8 billion was paid out for misdiagnosis of patients in the U.S. between 1986 and 2010.

Examples of Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice can take many forms, but some types of malpractice are more common than others. In terms of paid medical malpractice claims, the top three reasons are related to:

• Errors in diagnosis
• Errors relating to surgery
• Errors related to medication or treatment

Here is an incomplete list of potential errors leading to a medical malpractice suit (as seen in filed cases):

• Not taking an appropriate patient history
• Misdiagnosis
• Failure to diagnose a condition or illness
• Failure to order proper testing
• Misreading or ignoring laboratory results
• Unnecessary surgery
• Errors during surgery, including
  • Operating on the wrong body part
  • Operating on the wrong patient

• Prescribing the wrong medicine
• Medication dosing mistakes
• Lack of follow-up or aftercare
• Premature discharge from the hospital

These errors can lead to many types of injuries including:

• Birth injuries
• Nerve damage
• Brain damage

Are You a Victim of Medical Malpractice?

If you or a loved one have been injured due to medical negligence or medical malpractice, contact us.

If we take your case, you will pay us nothing unless we win. We will work with you and use all our resources and expertise to fully investigate your circumstances. You may be entitled to compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, lost work, and other measurable consequences from medical mistakes that were made.

Hospitals and doctors have teams of experienced dedicated lawyers on their side. Shouldn’t you have a team of dedicated, experienced lawyers standing with you?