Things that you must Know of Medical Negligence
As reported in a periodical of American Medical Association medical negligence has become one of top three causes of mortality in United States right after the cancer and heart attack. Just in the year 2012, more than 3 billion dollars have been paid as medical negligence compensations, which come to the average of one payment every hour. Really alarming facts! But how one can reduce one’s chances of becoming a part of these unfortunate statistics is a big question that everyone must explore the answers for. Patients should be well aware of some basic facts about medical negligence so that they can avoid vulnerable situations and deal with its damages in a better way. Below is some important information about malpractice.
The foremost thing that might be confusing for many people is to find a right definition of medical negligence. Is any medical treatment that results in injuries or harms to a patient could be called as medical negligence? No, it is not like that. Generally, all treatments and medical procedures have some inherited risks of damages that can’t be prevented. Malpractice or negligence is said to have occurred when a medical practitioner does not practice in accordance with accepted standards of healthcare while treating a patient. These medical standards are that a responsible and skilled doctor must follow in his practice. If for some reason practitioner deviates from these standards and eventually cause some harms to the patient, he can be held liable for his negligent act.
How can one determine if he/she has been a victim of medical negligence? Often it is easy to determine, but at times situation is intricate enough to sort out and answer this question. Simply, if patient receives some obvious injury or other damage due to negligence on part of a healthcare provider, there exists malpractice that can easily be claimed against.Sometimes, consequences of medical negligence take months or even years to become apparent, so it gets difficult to directly establish the cause and effect connection. In such situations patient’s medical history can be helpful to establish whether his present condition is related with some negligent medical practice in any way. Medical experts can review the case history of the person and assess where the problem stems from, and if it is because of some medical negligence then where that faults might have occurred. These expert verifications are also important to support compensation claims in the court.
What if medical negligence happening is confirmed? If a person is certain that he/she has been subjected to some malpractice that caused him/her some harms, the foremost step should be contacting an experienced solicitor who will evaluate the legal worth of medical negligence claims. Before formally filing the claim, the solicitor will review all the details including claimant’s medical reports, the proofs of being treated by accused practitioner and all other relevant case particulars. The claimant, his family, friends and all related people can be interviewed by the solicitor in order to determine the veracity of case. This point of caution here is that always seek legal guidance from a licensed and experienced medical negligence solicitor who can effectively deal with the case requirements. If you happen to choose an inexperienced legal representative for you, it is more likely you would fail in winning your claim despite its veracity.