Medical malpractice laws protect patients who end up harmed when they seek medical care. Quite a few medical malpractice lawsuits relate to negligence rather than acts of intentional misconduct. Patients may allege that a healthcare provider did something that negatively affected their prognosis or caused them harm. They may then need to establish that negligence occurred in order to prevail if the matter goes to court.
Some people have a hard time understanding what constitutes negligence and what does not. They may choose to give the doctor who saw them the benefit of the doubt. Those who understand the legal definition of negligence for the purpose of compensation claims may feel more empowered to take the necessary steps to hold a healthcare provider accountable for causing harm or otherwise allowing their condition to worsen.
Negligence may involve inaction
Many cases involving negligence begin with a failure to act. The physician seeing a patient does not refer them out for testing, diagnose them or recommend any treatment. The failure to do what another reasonable medical professional would in the same situation can constitute medical negligence.
Taking the wrong steps can also be negligent
There are cases in which a doctor’s actions are negligent because they are inappropriate or likely to cause harm. If another reasonable physician might have recognized that prescribing a certain drug was dangerous due to a patient’s allergies or other medication they took, the doctor may have been negligent. The same is true in scenarios involving unusual treatments or off-label prescribing. When other competent medical professionals recognize that the doctor did something likely to cause harm, the situation may meet the necessary standard to make a claim of medical negligence.
How can patients prove negligence?
Negligence is different in every medical malpractice case. Generally speaking, patients have to establish that the doctor overseeing their care failed to do what another reasonable medical professional would in the same situation. Typically, proving that begins with obtaining copies of medical records and then consulting with other physicians. Patients harmed by medical negligence and those who lose loved ones may also need legal assistance in a malpractice scenario.
Negotiating with malpractice insurance companies can prove to be too difficult for people to handle on their own, and that’s okay. Additionally, taking action when health care providers cause harm by pursuing a medical malpractice claim can potentially compensate those affected by poor standards of care.