What qualifies as medical malpractice?

Have you ever been to the doctor and felt like something wasn’t quite right? Maybe the treatment didn’t work as expected, or you experienced complications that seemed avoidable. In such cases, medical malpractice may have occurred. Let’s dive into what that means and when it applies.

What is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice refers to situations where a healthcare professional (like a doctor, nurse, or hospital) fails to provide an acceptable standard of care, resulting in harm or injury to the patient. In simpler terms, it’s when a medical mistake happens due to negligence or lack of skill.

For example, if a surgeon operates on the wrong body part or leaves a surgical instrument inside a patient, that would likely qualify as malpractice. Or if a doctor prescribes medication that interacts dangerously with other drugs the patient is taking, that could also be considered malpractice.

Proving Medical Malpractice

To successfully claim medical malpractice, a few key elements must be proven:

• A doctor-patient relationship existed
• The healthcare provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care
• This failure directly caused harm or injury to the patient
• The patient suffered measurable damages (physical, emotional, or financial)

It’s not enough for a treatment to simply have a poor outcome – the provider’s actions must have deviated from what a reasonably skilled professional would have done in that situation.

Surprising Facts About Medical Malpractice

• Diagnostic errors are the leading cause of malpractice claims. Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis accounts for around 33% of cases.
• Most medical malpractice cases involve surgery. Surgical errors make up about 24% of claims, followed by treatment errors at 19%.
• Only about 30% of medical malpractice cases result in payment to the plaintiff. The rest are either dismissed or settled out of court.

Subheadings for Readability

• What Qualifies as Negligence?
• Common Types of Medical Mistakes
• Statute of Limitations for Filing a Claim

Learn More

• Informed Consent: The process of explaining risks and benefits to a patient before treatment.
• Never Events: Serious, preventable medical errors that should never occur, like operating on the wrong body part.
• Medical Malpractice Reform: Efforts to change laws and policies around malpractice lawsuits.