Medical malpractice and negligence are similar concepts, but differ in some way. Their difference arises from awareness or intent of the medical professional that responsible for the injury.
In personal injury law, medical malpractice is a general term used to describe a situation where a medical doctor causes harm to a patient. Furthermore, there are two types of cases patients can file against a healthcare provider or institution. You can file a claim for medical malpractice or medical negligence.
After reading this post, you’ll understand the difference between medical malpractice and negligence. Keep reading for more details!
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Healthcare professionals are trained to save lives. It is the responsibility of medical professionals to make the right decision when diagnosing, treating, or performing a surgical operation on a patient.
Suppose a healthcare professional knows that performing a medical procedure on a patient can lead to injury but goes ahead with the procedure. In that case, the doctor can be sued for medical malpractice. The doctor obviously knew about the consequences before making the mistake that caused injury to the patient.
Healthcare professionals are supposed to follow strict guidelines or protocols to ensure proper diagnosis or treatment of patients. But when a healthcare professional operates outside of the guidelines and makes a mistake that causes harm to the patient, then they could be charged with medical malpractice.
Understanding what medical malpractice is and how long to sue for medical malpractice after sustaining the injury is highly important. Each state has a time frame, ranging from 1-10 years. Courts dismiss medical malpractice cases filed after the deadline.
What Is Negligence?
In personal injury law, negligence focuses on whether an individual or company’s carelessness is responsible for a patient’s injury. If the individual or company is responsible and you have evidence to prove it, you can sue them for damages.
To get adequate compensation, you and your personal injury lawyer must prove negligence in a court of law. You must prove to the court that the medical professional or company caused harm to you because of their recklessness.
However, to prove negligence, you and your attorney first have to prove to the court that:
- The defendant (individual or company) has the legal duty to protect you.
- You must also show proof that the organization or individual you are accusing has breached or abandoned that duty.
- Show proof that the individual or institution’s breach of that duty is the major cause of your injury.
- That you have sustained an injury because of that breach of duty. It happened all because they failed to follow protocols.
In the legal profession, these four elements are abbreviated as duty, breach, causation, and damages.
How Does Medical Malpractice Differ from Negligence? Key Examples
The difference, likewise, the similarity between medical malpractice and negligence, is clear from the definition of both terms. However, some examples will help make the differences between both terms easier to grasp.
An example of a form of medical treatment where medical malpractice may likely occur is surgical operation. We have seen cases where medical doctors forget surgical instruments in patients’ bodies.
Another great example of medical malpractice is when a surgical team performs a quick surgical operation on a patient and fails to sterilize the surgical instruments before using them. Such a decision can put the patient’s life at great risk. The patient could suffer an infection or worse.
Failure to check the medical ID wristband of patients before performing a surgical operation on them is another example of medical malpractice. In this case, the doctor has breached the protocols and put the patient’s life at great risk.
It is a high-risk surgical operation that could cause excess fluid to build up around the patient’s brain. If this happens, the patient might suffer a serious stroke.
In this scenario, a patient can file a solid medical malpractice claim against the doctor responsible for the injury. Having excess fluid around one’s brain is a serious medical issue. That’s why doctors must confirm the identities of patients before kick-starting any surgical operation.
Now, let’s delve into medical negligence. Firstly, note that medical negligence can become malpractice. For that to happen, the intentional negligence of a physician must be the direct cause of a person’s injury. The patient can be seriously injured or could experience a rapid decline in their health condition.
An example of medical negligence is medication prescriptions. When prescribing drugs, the doctor must consider the patient’s history and avoid possible drug interactions. In other words, the doctor has to remove drugs that can cause interaction and result in complications.
So, an example of medical negligence is when a medical doctor prescribes medication without paying attention to the dangerous drug interaction the patient might suffer. While some complications arising from a drug interaction are mild, some could be critical and life-threatening.
Another example of medical negligence is when a medical doctor fails to give a patient the right dose of anesthesia. It is called anesthesia dosage error. The error can occur either by giving a patient a high or smaller dose of anesthesia.
When a high dose of anesthesia is administered, a patient’s heart rate could drop dangerously low. In the worst-case scenario, the individual may even go into a coma.
Another example of medical negligence is when the medical personnel or institution fails to provide the right aftercare after a surgical operation.
Conclusion
You can see the answer to the question, “How does medical malpractice differ from negligence. We have explained what both terms are and how they differ with examples.
In this life, no one is above mistake. We all make mistakes and learn from them. However, some mistakes can cause serious damage to others. And the person responsible for the mistake can be sued.
So, though we all make mistakes, it’s forbidden for medical doctors to make mistakes while performing their duties. The wrong medical prescription or anesthesia dosage error can cause an injury to a patient. Doctors and medical institutions can be sued for medical malpractice or negligence.
