Even if you don’t work as a lawyer in the personal injury law niche, you might still know some basics regarding medical malpractice. You probably know that if a doctor gets such an accusation, they might need to appear in court to try to clear their name. However, if there’s abundant evidence that medical malpractice occurred, then they will likely need to pay some money to settle the case.
Medical malpractice cases can get contentious quickly. That’s because, if a patient says a doctor committed medical malpractice, they might feel like they have their whole reputation on the line.
It’s not just about the money that this doctor or the facility at which they work might have to give up. If you can prove on the stand that this doctor committed medical malpractice, then they might have to resign in disgrace. If they don’t, then the hospital or clinic for which they work may fire them.
You might think that medical malpractice would not happen very often. Unfortunately, it occurs more frequently than you might assume.
Why does it happen so often, though? Let’s take a few moments right now to talk about that.
What Does Medical Malpractice Mean?
First, let’s define the term medical malpractice so that we’re sure you know what we mean when we use it. Medical malpractice means that a medical worker acted negligently. When treating a patient, they deviated from accepted or normal medical standards.
This harmed the patient. Maybe it injured them or made them ill. You can probably think of many situations that would fall into the rather nebulous medical malpractice category.
A doctor may operate on the wrong body part. A nurse might give their patient the wrong medication. A doctor might think that a patient has a certain condition based on their symptoms, but then it turns out that’s inaccurate.
Why do these things happen? There’s no single reason, but a few situations seem to cause medical malpractice more than others.
Doctors and Other Medical Personnel Often Put in Long Hours
First, it’s important to understand that doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel often put in very long hours. In some parts of the country, they’re very much in demand. Maybe they’re trying to help an underserved community.
In such instances, a doctor, nurse, or some other medical professional must try to stay awake and fully focused during their shift. What if you have an orderly in a hospital who’s putting in double shifts because the facility cut back on its staff, though?
In such an instance, the personnel might try to stay focused by chugging extra cups of coffee or energy drinks. However, they can still make a mistake if they’ve been on the clock for too long.
Without the right amount of sleep, it’s much easier to make a mistake. In this kind of scenario, you can easily see how a medical malpractice situation might arise, to a patient’s detriment.
Some Medical Personnel Can Become Smug
You may also have a situation where you have someone in the medical field who becomes smug. It’s never a good thing to have anyone become brash or cocky, but some doctors in particular get that way after years of experience.
They may feel like they have amazing surgical skills, and that’s probably true. It’s crucial to stay humble in the medical field, though, even if you’ve got abilities that most other doctors don’t have.
The one time a doctor gets careless when operating on someone could signal their downfall. If they’re operating on several people in a row, and they read a chart wrong, then they might amputate the wrong body part or remove the wrong organ.
It seems unlikely, but this kind of thing happens more than you might imagine.
Poor Communication Sometimes Causes Medical Malpractice
You may also have a situation where medical malpractice occurs because there’s poor communication among staff members at a clinic, urgent care facility, hospital, etc. You might have nurses or orderlies who go from facility to facility. If you have several hospitals dealing with staffing issues, then this can easily happen.
It happened during the Covid-19 pandemic a lot. With exhausted nurses and orderlies working with people they don’t know or in facilities with which they’re not familiar, miscommunication can easily occur.
That’s when you might have a nurse give an individual the incorrect medication or the wrong dosage. That’s a prime medical malpractice example.