Every year in the United States, more than 40 million lawsuits are filed. These can be for a whole range of legal issues from workplace disputes to personal injury claims.
A large number of them are made against professionals working in the medical industry. In fact, medical malpractice claims pay out more than $3 billion every year in the US.
So what is medical malpractice? In order to know whether or not you have a claim to make, you need to understand how the law defines medical malpractice. In that case, you’ve come to the right place!
Read on for factors about medical malpractice that will tell you everything you need to know.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Defining medical malpractice properly is extremely important.
After all, medical staff are only human and they won’t always make the right judgment call. However, this doesn’t always mean you can sue for medical malpractice. There are three defining factors that qualify a malpractice case:
- Violating the medical standard of care
- Injuries caused by negligence
- Injuries resulting in significant damage
The medical standard of care is a standard that all medical professionals must stick to. This includes delivering appropriate medical treatment, diagnoses, and patient care. If a medical professional doesn’t meet this standard, you may have a negligence case on your hands.
However, negligence does not always mean malpractice. To make a claim, you must have sustained significant injuries that would not have occurred if it weren’t for negligent care.
So you have to ask yourself: if the doctor had fulfilled their duty of care, would you have the same injuries? If the answer is no then you may have a case on your hands.
Finally, to complete your case, you must be able to prove the impact that your injuries have had on your life. This might include their impact on your quality of life, your ability to work, your financial stability, or your mental health.
Examples of Medical Malpractice
Perhaps the easiest way of understanding what is or isn’t medical malpractice is to look at some examples of when you might have a case. This includes:
- Misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose a condition (often as a result of ordering inappropriate tests or failing to recognize symptoms)
- Misreading laboratory results or ignoring them completely
- Organizing unnecessary surgery for a patient
- Making errors in surgery
- Operating on the wrong area of a patient
- Discharging a patient too soon
- Giving a patient medication that they are allergic to
- Administering the wrong dose of medication
- Not taking a proper patient history or ignoring parts of a patient’s history
- Failing to order the proper tests required
In some cases, doing any of the above can result in serious injury to a patient. This might involve a condition worsening without treatment or it might result in an entirely new injury. If this happens you can look into filing a medical malpractice case.
Studies show that more than 250,000 people in America die as a result of medical errors or malpractice each year. If this happens, you may also have a wrongful death claim on your hands.
What Do You Do If You’ve Experienced Medical Malpractice?
What to know about medical malpractice isn’t just its definition. You also need a clear idea of what you should do if you become a victim of it.
In Hawaii, you have two years from the date of your injuries to file a medical malpractice claim. So you don’t want to wait around to get started.
For this, you will need as much evidence as possible to back up your claims. This can include:
- Your medical history
- The dates of your appointments
- A thorough record of tests, results, and treatments that you received
- Images of your injuries if this applies to your case
- Bills for the cost of any treatment (including corrective treatment for your injuries)
- Evidence to show the damage that your injuries have caused in your life
An experienced attorney can help you to put together your case. This can increase your chances of making a successful claim.
Getting Help from an Attorney
If you are planning to make a medical malpractice claim then it’s a good idea to have an experienced lawyer on your side. After all, you can be fairly sure that any hospital or medical professional will have their own lawyer.
Before hiring a lawyer, gather as much information as possible about your case. This will help them to assess your options quickly. You should also put together a list of questions to ask a lawyer at your initial consultation.
Remember, having a consultation doesn’t mean that you have to hire a lawyer. When looking for a lawyer to suit you, you should consider:
- Their experience dealing with medical malpractice cases
- What sort of resources they have at their disposal
- How they manage their workload (for example, if they work alone or have a team supporting them)
- How much they charge
Before embarking on a medical malpractice lawsuit, it is important to consider your budget. This can be an expensive process so you want to ensure that a payout will be enough to cover your legal fees.
Get Support Making a Claim Today
Understanding how to answer the question ‘what is medical malpractice?’ will quickly help you decide whether or not you have a claim to make. If you do, then it is a good idea to get support from an experienced lawyer as soon as possible.
For more information or to start putting your case together, get in touch today. We’re here to help.
