Medical Malpractice Case Study

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Read this article regarding medical malpractice.
This submission (outline below) will consist of overlapping/correlating the selected article with points brought up in the general malpractice article on MDLinx

The submission should include these components:

*Introduction/Synopsis
This should summarize the key details of the events that occurred in the focus article.

*Cause
Refer to the MDLinx “Top Causes of Medical Malpractice.” Describe which cause/s you feel this article best relates to and why.

*Challenge and Opportunity
What is a challenge that will make it tough to eliminate this error from happening in the future? Why?
What is an opportunity that will help to eliminate this error from happening moving forward? Why?

*Note the grader will be looking for queues the student did additional research regarding the scenario beyond the provided articles (i.e. additional external resources). Note “Wikipedia” is not a reliable source (but is a good starting point to gather general information).

*Closing
Summarize what has been said and reemphasize the most important point.

*Include citations even when paraphrasing. For this writing, there should be 1 or 2 citations per paragraph.
*Be sure the references page is formatted correctly. Each citation should link to a reference entry.
*Use sub-headings to organize the writing.

Link to article:
https://cafemom.com/news/undertaker-catches-preemi…

Link to Mdlinx
https://www.mdlinx.com/article/top-causes-of-medic…

Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury to a patient.[1] The negligence might arise from errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or health management.

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An act of medical malpractice usually has three characteristics. Firstly, it must be proven that the treatment has not been consistent with the standard of care, which is the standard medical treatment accepted and recognized by the profession. Secondly, it must be proven that the patient has suffered some kind of injury due to the negligence. In other words, an injury without negligence or an act of negligence without causing any injury cannot be considered malpractice. Thirdly, it must be proven that the injury resulted in significant damages such as disability, unusual pain, suffering, hardship, loss of income or a significant burden of medical bills.

Medical malpractice law
In common law jurisdictions, medical malpractice liability is normally based on the tort of negligence.[3]

Although the law of medical malpractice differs significantly between nations, as a broad general rule liability follows when a health care practitioner does not show a fair, reasonable and competent degree of skill when providing medical care to a patient.[3] If a practitioner holds himself out as a specialist a higher degree of skill is required.[3] Jurisdictions have also been increasingly receptive to claims based on informed consent, raised by patients who allege that they were not adequately informed of the risks of medical procedures before agreeing to treatment.[3]

As law varies by jurisdiction, the specific professionals who may be targeted by a medical malpractice action will vary depending upon where the action is filed. Among professionals that may be potentially liable under medical malpractice laws are:

Physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists and dentists.
Nurses, midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.[4]
Allied health professionals – including physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, podiatrists, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists, optometrists and medical radiation practitioners.[5][6]
Among the acts or omissions that may potentially support a medical malpractice claim are the failure to properly diagnose a disease or medical condition, the failure to provide appropriate treatment for a medical condition, and unreasonable delay in treating a diagnosed medical condition.[7] In some jurisdictions a medical malpractice action may be allowed even without a mistake from the doctor, based upon principles of informed consent, where a patient was not informed of possible consequences of a course of treatment and would have declined the medical treatment had proper information been provided in advance.

Consequences
Consequences for patients and doctors vary by country.

In Canada, all provinces except Quebec base medical malpractice liability on negligence, while Quebec follows a civil law system.[11]
Germany permits patients injured by medical negligence to bring a private action against the provider in contract, tort, or both.[12]
Sweden has implemented a no fault system for the compensation of people injured by medical treatment.[3] Patients who want to bring malpractice claims may choose between bringing a traditional tort claim or a no fault claim.[13]
In New Zealand, the Accident Compensation Corporation provides no-fault compensation for victims.[13]
In the United States, tort lawsuits may be used to seek compensation for malpractice. Awards of compensation in the United States tend to be much larger than awards for similar injuries in other nations.[3]
A no-fault system may provide compensation to people who have medical outcomes that are significantly worse than would be anticipated under the circumstances,[13][non-primary source needed] or where there is proof of injury resulting from medical error,[14] without regard to whether or not malpractice occurred. Some no fault systems are restricted to specific types of injury, such as a birth injury or vaccine injury.

Failure to Monitor When evaluating medical malpractice, this can be performed by any healthcare professional. It is easy to classify this to be misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, even not taking the time to evaluate a patient properly. When practicing medicine it is important that all measures be taken when a patient is showing signs of infection or having any adverse reaction to medication. In the case study below this is a prime example of the importance of checking patient progression. Case background As this case study is evaluated we look at who is involved. This case involves a 44 year old patient this is the plaintiff in this case. The issue began when the patient noticed bumps on his wrist; one may think that this…show more content…
One important fact in this case is medication that the physician administered to the patient is not listed in the case study. All information must be documented, this helps to keep track in the event the patient gets a reaction this is significant information that must be recorded. Although this may be unimportant to the case this should still be listed. As this patient condition worsened he was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. As mentioned above knowing all medications being administered are important, when treatment first began the pharmacist in this case did exceptionally well keeping track of the medications being administered. Another important factor is that the pharmacist kept track of the care being provided to the patient because the pharmacist reviewed patient results he was able to make suggestions to the physician to check the patients creatinine levels. However the pharmacist in the case is the defendant. Although the pharmacist did well in reviewing the patient’s information during most of the treatment, he did fail to do a follow up check. The…show more content…
One must evaluate all parties involved. It can be argued that do to the lack of documentation or communication of the physician this was an act of negligence. A jury can decide that lack of documentation is sufficient evidence in finding a physician guilty of negligence (Pozgar, 2009). When we look at the role of the defendant which was the pharmacist not the physician his duty goes above just filling prescriptions, the duty of a pharmacist is to monitor the patient’s medication. In order for him to have achieved this properly he should have made sure he contacted the physician for further information even if the physician failed to communicate with him. Because of his actions the plaintiff is holding the pharmacist accountable for his treatment and that is not where all of the blame should be consumed. The argument that can be made for the pharmacist is that the pharmacist acted within his scope of practice and left everything to the physician. This situation can easily be construed as, if the physician needed further medications or if there were any adverse reaction then he would have contacted the pharmacist. Once again the prosecutor may argue that the pharmacist had a duty to follow up on any treatment that he provided to a patient. These arguments would be the most persuasive. These are the key elements in determining the case being argued. For example the pharmacist not following up with the patient’s physician may be

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