Medical malpractice is an unfortunate reality in our world. To constitute medical malpractice there must be negligence. That means that the treatment provided does not satisfy what is expected by reasonably careful doctors or similar healthcare providers under the circumstances. So, a doctor’s mistake may not always be considered negligence. Similarly, a patient’s dissatisfaction with a course of treatment or outcome does not alone equal negligent medical care. With that in mind, there are some common forms of medical errors.
Diagnostic Errors
Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis account for a large percentage of medical malpractice complaints. The critical analysis in determining whether malpractice exists is to compare the actions of the treating doctor with what is expected of a competent physician within the same specialty when faced with a similar situation. If one doctor has a wildly divergent approach from the norm, then negligence may exist.
Pregnancy & Childbirth
Negligence related to prenatal care can include failure to diagnose dangerous medical conditions related to pregnancy, failure to identify birth defects and failure to identify ectopic pregnancy. During childbirth, a doctor’s negligence may include the failure to respond to fetal distress or failure to anticipate complications related to the baby’s size or positioning.
Drug Prescriptions & Administration
Medication errors occur from the initial prescription to the administration of the drug. The most common medication errors involve improper dosage as the result of human error or faulty equipment.
Surgery & Anesthesia
Mistakes made in the operating room may be classified as medical malpractice if a surgeon operates on the wrong part of the body, leaves surgical instruments in the body, or even operates on the wrong patient. An anesthesiologist can commit medical malpractice even before anesthesia is administered by failing to investigate the patient’s medical history for possible complications. Anesthesia errors during surgery include providing too much anesthesia, failure to monitor, and improper intubation.
