What is malpractice?
Malpractice refers to professional liability for negligent acts. Medical malpractice, on the other hand, is a wrongful act on the part of a healthcare provider that results in injury to the patient. It can be caused by several types of errors:
- Recklessness: acting with a lack of reasonableness, judgment and care.
- Negligence: omission, carelessness or lack of effort.
- Impetuosity: not having sufficient training or experience to perform a medical procedure.
- Failure to follow the rules: not following the guidelines for patient management previously established by a consensus of professionals.
Malpractice is usually unintentional, which would be considered a negligent crime; on the other hand, in some exceptional cases, malpractice can be intentional, which is called a malicious crime.
What are the causes of malpractice?
There are several predisposing factors in medical malpractice that should be known:
- Excessive use of diagnostic tests and even invasive practices due to patient demands, usually unfounded.
- Little time for the patient during a consultation
- Unfair remuneration, which adds to the long working hours of physicians and leads to increased fatigue.
How to act in case of malpractice?
Malpractice can lead to a lawsuit. It must be based on four points: there must be a legal duty on the part of the malpractice defendant, this legal duty must have been breached, this breach must have caused an injury, and there must be damages (some physical, financial or emotional loss).
In order to file a lawsuit, it is first necessary to file a claim with the hospital where the malpractice occurred and secondly to go to court for a trial. To do this, it is very important to use a forensic doctor as a medical expert to prove that the patient has been the victim of medical malpractice.
Thus, the forensic doctor is in charge of thoroughly analyzing the case, studying the medical treatment that was performed and concluding whether the error is due to malpractice or human failure. Once everything has been analyzed, a document is drawn up containing his or her opinion, which is very important for the court when it comes to pronouncing a sentence.