By: Megan A.
“The doctor must do everything in his power to save lives, preserve health, or at least alleviate the suffering,” a quote from Hippocrates, a Greek physician whom was considered to be one of the most historical figures in medicine.
For many years, medical professionals have been held to very high standards of honesty, precision, and ethics. Doctors are expected to complete perfect work, properly diagnose, and perform flawless procedures. In other words, they are expected to make no mistakes. However, mistakes are not uncommon. In fact, the Journal of the American Medical Association named medical negligence as the third most common cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
Medical negligence is an instance where a medical professional does something or neglects to do something that in turn, harms or hurts the patient. A term often used with medical negligence is medical malpractice, which is considered to be a subcategory of negligence, where treatment is not given as what is considered safe and standard, resulting in injury or death to the patient. Among the medical specialties with high liability, are Obstetricians/Gynecologists, surgeons, and private practice owners. These specialties likely have the highest liability because there are the most chances for mistakes to occur. In situations like the birthing process, it can be easy for problems to occur, and it is very likely for the doctor to be the first person to consider at fault. Although, there are instances where negligence occurs and the fault does lay on the Ob/Gyn. The same goes for surgeons, it can occur where the necessary precautions for performing a procedure are not met, and the patient is left injured.
In order for negligence to be avoided, doctors and other medical professionals, should be sure to perform proper care and treat patients with the upmost care. Necessary HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) procedures should be met and the American Medical Association's Medical Ethics guidelines should be upheld.
Image URL: Troubled Doctor-http://www.phpattorneys.com/2015/10/differences-between-medical-negligence-medical-malpractice/
“The doctor must do everything in his power to save lives, preserve health, or at least alleviate the suffering,” a quote from Hippocrates, a Greek physician whom was considered to be one of the most historical figures in medicine.
 |
For many years, medical professionals have been held to very high standards of honesty, precision, and ethics. Doctors are expected to complete perfect work, properly diagnose, and perform flawless procedures. In other words, they are expected to make no mistakes. However, mistakes are not uncommon. In fact, the Journal of the American Medical Association named medical negligence as the third most common cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
Medical negligence is an instance where a medical professional does something or neglects to do something that in turn, harms or hurts the patient. A term often used with medical negligence is medical malpractice, which is considered to be a subcategory of negligence, where treatment is not given as what is considered safe and standard, resulting in injury or death to the patient. Among the medical specialties with high liability, are Obstetricians/Gynecologists, surgeons, and private practice owners. These specialties likely have the highest liability because there are the most chances for mistakes to occur. In situations like the birthing process, it can be easy for problems to occur, and it is very likely for the doctor to be the first person to consider at fault. Although, there are instances where negligence occurs and the fault does lay on the Ob/Gyn. The same goes for surgeons, it can occur where the necessary precautions for performing a procedure are not met, and the patient is left injured.
In order for negligence to be avoided, doctors and other medical professionals, should be sure to perform proper care and treat patients with the upmost care. Necessary HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) procedures should be met and the American Medical Association's Medical Ethics guidelines should be upheld.
Image URL: Troubled Doctor-http://www.phpattorneys.com/2015/10/differences-between-medical-negligence-medical-malpractice/
By Micalah B
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting post! I really enjoyed the part of your post about how likely the doctor is to be blamed right away. I think far too often blame is thrown on medical professionals who, unfortunately, are bound to make occasional mistakes just like the rest of us. The have an intensely stressful job, with human lives resting in their hands. I believe people should give them more credit for this, instead of being so quick to point their fingers when things don't go as planned.
Micalah, thanks for the feedback! It is true, a lot of stress is put on doctors and it is unfortunate that doctors typically are the first to receive blame.
ReplyDelete