Common Causes Of Medical Malpractice
As a doctor, you strive to live up to your duty of care to each patient. However, given the number of patients seen at your practice or facility and the number of other medical professionals you work with, human error may be responsible for a mistake that harms a patient. You could find yourself facing a medical malpractice lawsuit based on a mistake that wasn't your fault. Understanding the following common causes of medical malpractice may help you and your attorney develop a defense to use in civil court.
Fatigue
Given that many hospitals and clinics are open 24/7 to attend to emergencies, the facility where you work likely employs many staff members who work swing shifts. Combined with the fact that it's common for nurses and doctors to work 12-hour shifts or longer, it's easy for fatigue to lead to a medical mistake. Someone on your staff may have given a patient the wrong medication or failed to respond adequately to an emergency because they were fatigued. If you are accused of committing the error, your medical malpractice defense attorney may be able to show that it was actually someone else's fatigue that led to the error.
Poor Communication
A common cause of medical malpractice is poor communication between medical staff as well as poor communication between staff and patients. If, for example, a nurse was responsible for patient intake and failed to question a patient thoroughly about their medical history and allergies, it could lead to harm later on if you prescribe a medication that interacts poorly with their existing prescriptions. Similarly, if you are assisting with a surgery and the surgeon instructs you to use the wrong instrument or make an incision in the incorrect place, their poor communication could cause harm to the patient. Your medical malpractice defense attorney may strive to show that you did everything to the best of your ability and that another staff member's poor communication is to blame for the medical mistake.
Understaffing
Many medical facilities are chronically understaffed, which leads to worse outcomes for patients and potentially more mistakes. Some patients in critical condition do not receive optimal care because there aren't enough staff members to attend to their needs. If a patient suffered a worsened condition while waiting for you to administer medication or perform another necessary task, the patient might blame you and file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Your defense attorney might argue that the patient wouldn't have suffered such harm if the medical facility were staffed appropriately, thus requesting that the hospital or clinic ultimately be held responsible for the patient instead of you.
When you have been accused of committing malpractice, it's important to hire an attorney to guide you through the civil litigation process in order to avoid potential damage to your reputation and your job.
