Nothing is guaranteed in medicine. Knowing that, how do you tell the difference between an ordinary bad outcome and medical malpractice?
Medical malpractice can occur under a variety of circumstances. It generally refers to mistakes that are made through a physician or medical provider’s negligence, which simply means making a mistake that an ordinarily cautious doctor or nurse would not make. Some common forms of medical malpractice include:
- Prescription errors
- Wrong-site surgery
- Wrong-patient surgery
- Failure to obtain informed consent
- Failing to diagnose a condition
- Unnecessary delays in diagnosis
- Transmitting an infection to a patient
- Neglecting or injuring a patient