Getting any kind of medical procedure is very stressful. Doctors are trusted professionals that heal and repair damaged lives. There are times when things go wrong and lawyers have to get involved. Medical malpractice is when a doctor is negligent in performing some sort of medical procedure or other job functions like prescribing treatment. What qualifies as medical malpractice? Can someone just sue if they don’t like the doctor or their treatment? It can get a little complicated which is why malpractice suits can take a long time. Below are some things to consider if medical malpractice is present or not.

Did an injury result?

This one is a little self-explanatory. Suppose that a person was getting surgery and the surgeon made a mistake that caused their patient harm. This would be a factor in medical malpractice. While it may be simple to understand sometimes fault is what gets complicated.

The obvious thing that most doctors will say is that the injury was an accident and not because the doctor was negligent. This could be true and most times it is. Accidents do happen during surgery and it’s no one’s fault.

Now, let’s say the surgeon failed to follow a guideline or practice that is for the safety of the patient. Then this would be a different matter. Failing to follow safety guidelines could be seen as medical malpractice. It would defiantly be taken into consideration.

Was there a doctor-patient relationship present

A doctor-patient relationship is important for malpractice to be considered. All this means is that you went to a doctor and there an agreement that they would treat you. This establishes that the doctor is obligated to follow a certain set of guidelines when treating a patient.

A situation that wouldn’t be considered a relationship if someone overheard or read a doctor’s opinion on a treatment option. If a person followed it, then they would most likely be at their own fault. There would be no proof that a doctor was under their care so suing for medical malpractice.

Establishing a relationship and injury may seem simple but that doesn’t mean a person should represent themselves. They need a good lawyer and need to know how to look one up. It’s easy to look up lawyers like Douglas Healy for example. This way you can make sure that you’re getting a good lawyer.

Violation of standards

This was brought up earlier with the injury example and standards of care cover a lot more than just surgical practices. All this means is that the care provided is typical of what would come from a reasonably trained and competent doctor. This can cover a lot of issues.

Some of these issues can be the prescription of drugs to a patient. It most likely wouldn’t be a violation of standards if a doctor prescribed a treatment that didn’t work as well as the doctor thought. If it was a mistake that any competent doctor could make, then it might not be medical malpractice. Now if the drugs prescribed are way out of the norm and it resulted in an injury then this would be a good case for malepractice.

This standard also covers surgery but can get a little complicated. If a patient is injured while removing something like a tumor, then would this be malepractice? It would be hard to say. Every surgery comes with some risk of injury or death. Injury or death during surgery isn’t an automatic case for malepractice. It has to be so outside the norm that no competent doctor would do it. This is what gets tricky.

Competence

This is an important factor as competence can be difficult to prove. Now it would obvious if a doctor is grossly negligent and they’re doing something like surgery with dirty tools, no gloves, and cutting things that don’t have to be cut. How would you measure competence if this wasn’t the case? Would a competent doctor never make mistakes? Lawyers often consider the competence of a doctor compared to others in their field to get a baseline.

Would you have a case?

Medical malpractice can be a tricky thing to prove in court. Searching for a good lawyer, like with the site used to look up Douglas Healy, is a good start. Doctors sometimes make honest mistakes but when they don’t, they need to be held accountable