Medical Malpractice: Understanding The Law, Managing The Risk


Book Description

This textbook is about the law of medical malpractice and how to prevent a malpractice lawsuit. It grew out of an earlier book covering medical negligence in Singapore. The book's primary goal is to provide a clear and simple explanation of the American law of medical malpractice, informed consent and risk management. Written with the clinician in mind, it is legally uncomplicated without being overly simplistic. The book is as much about medicine as it is about law; above all, it is about patients. It is written with the fervent belief that with better education, there will emerge a better appreciation of the expectations of the patient — often unmet — and the standards of the legal system — often misunderstood. Fewer lawsuits and improved patient care will hopefully follow.The book is in five sections. The first covers the law of malpractice and informed consent while the second covers risk management with chapters on confidentiality, communication and risk management tips. Section III is a single chapter on reforming the system, and discusses both medical and legal proposals. The subject of tort reforms is covered in this chapter. A review section consisting of 35 multiple choice questions and answers constitutes Section IV. The book concludes with a glossary of legal terms.




Medical Malpractice


Book Description

A comprehensive analysis of medical malpractice from legal, medical, economic, and insurance perspectives that considers why past efforts at reform have not worked and offers recommendations for realistic, achievable policy changes. Most experts would agree that the current medical malpractice system in the United States does not work effectively either to compensate victims fairly or prevent injuries caused by medical errors. Policy responses to a series of medical malpractice crises have not resulted in effective reform and have not altered the fundamental incentives of the stakeholders. In Medical Malpractice, economist Frank Sloan and lawyer Lindsey Chepke examine the U.S. medical malpractice process from legal, medical, economic, and insurance perspectives, analyze past efforts at reform, and offer realistic, achievable policy recommendations. They review the considerable empirical evidence in a balanced fashion and assess objectively what works in the current system and what does not. Sloan and Chepke argue that the complexity of medical malpractice stems largely from the interaction of the four discrete markets that determine outcomes—legal, medical malpractice insurance, medical care, and government activity. After describing what the evidence shows about the functioning of medical malpractice, types of defensive medicine, and the effects of past reforms, they examine such topics as scheduling damages as an alternative to flat caps, jury behavior, health courts, incentives to prevent medical errors, insurance regulation, reinsurance, no-fault insurance, and suggestions for future reforms. Medical Malpractice is the most comprehensive treatment of malpractice available, integrating findings from several different areas of research and describing them accessibly in nontechnical language. It will be an essential reference for anyone interested in medical malpractice.




A Measure of Malpractice


Book Description

A Measure of Malpractice tells the story and presents the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the largest and most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of the performance of the medical malpractice system. The Harvard study was commissioned by the government of New York in 1986, in the midst of a malpractice crisis that had driven insurance premiums for surgeons and obstetricians in New York City to nearly $200,000 a year. The Harvard-based team of doctors, lawyers, economists, and statisticians set out to investigate what was actually happening to patients in hospitals and to doctors in courtrooms, launching a far more informed debate about the future of medical liability in the 1990s. Careful analysis of the medical records of 30,000 patients hospitalized in 1984 showed that approximately one in twenty-five patients suffered a disabling medical injury, one quarter of these as a result of the negligence of a doctor or other provider. After assembling all the malpractice claims filed in New York State since 1975, the authors found that just one in eight patients who had been victims of negligence actually filed a malpractice claim, and more than two-thirds of these claims were filed by the wrong patients. The study team then interviewed injured patients in the sample to discover the actual financial loss they had experienced: the key finding was that for roughly the same dollar amount now being spent on a tort system that compensates only a handful of victims, it would be possible to fund comprehensive disability insurance for all patients significantly disabled by a medical accident. The authors, who came to the project from very different perspectives about the present malpractice system, are now in agreement about the value of a new model of medical liability. Rather than merely tinker with the current system which fixes primary legal responsibility on individual doctors who can be proved medically negligent, legislatures should encourage health care organizations to take responsibility for the financial losses of all patients injured in their care.




How to Survive a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit


Book Description

Everyone seeks to avoid getting into a lawsuit, but what do you do if this does happen? Getting sued for medical malpractice is one of the most traumatic events of a physician's career. This text will guide doctors and physicians through the process from the moment they receive a summons until the after-trial appeal process. Containing valuable information that physicians need to know to prevent making critical mistakes that can hurt their case With strategies explained to maximize their chances of a defendant's verdict. Including vital information on how to change your attorney, act at the deposition and dress for court, Navigating through what is a mysterious and terrifying process in non-legalese language that is easy to understand including what makes patients angry, strategies for coping, sample questions and tips on answering them to what happens in court and how to continue if there is a bad outcome.




Medical Malpractice


Book Description

How often are patients seriously injured through faulty medical care? And what proportion of these people receive compensation for their injuries and suffering? This is the first book that tries to answer these questions in a careful, scholarly way. Among its important findings is that at most one in ten patients injured through medical negligence receives compensation through the malpractice system. The focus of public attention has been on the rising cost to physicians of malpractice insurance. Although Patricia Danzon analyzes this question thoroughly, her view is much broader, encompassing the malpractice system itself--the legal process, the liability insurance markets, and the feedback to health care. As an economist, she is concerned with the efficiency or cost-effectiveness of the system from the point of view of its three social purposes: deterrence of medical negligence, compensation of injured patients, and the spreading of risk. To provide evidence of the operation of the system in practice, to distinguish fact from allegation, and to evaluate proposals for reform, she has undertaken a detailed empirical analysis of malpractice claims and insurance markets. It is a major contribution to our understanding of how the system works in practice and how it might be improved.




Improving Diagnosis in Health Care


Book Description

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.




Arzthaftungsrecht


Book Description




Preparing and Winning Medical Negligence Cases


Book Description

Preparing and Winning Medical Negligence Cases - Third Edition has been prepared by prominent, experienced medical specialists, all of whom have had much professional involvement and interest in legal medicine for many years, many of whom have JD as well as MD degrees. Therefore, while the chapters present a wealth of solid information for a variety of medical specialists, they are primarily designed to address important issues that are undoubtedly of great value to both plaintiff and defense trial attorneys, as well as health care professionals, and hospital administrative personnel regarding medical malpractice cases. Preparing and Winning Medical Negligence Cases provides extensive information for lawyers regarding medical malpractice suits from both a legal and medical perspectives. It makes complex topics such as anatomy, physiology and pathology of various organ systems and the clinical diagnoses rendered by medical specialists accessible to lawyers bringing or defending medical malpractice cases. The knowledge and experience contained in this work will provide invaluable information for attorneys in both the pretrial preparation and actual trial of medical negligence cases. Preparing and Winning Medical Negligence Cases brings together the combined knowledge and experience of outstanding medical-legal teachers and writers for the purpose of educating attorneys about the difficult, variegated, and controversial subject of medical malpractice. It is difficult, if not impossible, to think of a legal area that has been the subject of as much oral and written commentary in the past twenty years as medical malpractice. Unfortunately, many of these speeches, publications, and special programs have generated far more heat than light on this complex and controversial topic. As a result, confusion and misunderstanding have precipitated hostility among a great majority of physicians toward lawyers, particularly plaintiffs' trial attorneys. Addressing this issue, this volume was prepared by prominent, experienced medical specialists, all of whom have had much involvement and interest in legal medicine for many years. Therefore, although the chapters are substantive, solid reviews from the perspective of medical specialists, they also are geared to address important issues encountered at the interface of law and medicine.




The Medical Malpractice Survival Handbook E-Book


Book Description

Reduce your risk of costly litigation! Written in easy-to-understand language by a team of medical doctors who are also attorneys at law, this handbook addresses the issues surrounding the growing incidence of medical malpractice. It examines the scenarios that can result in a malpractice suit, the best actions to take during the course of litigation, and the most effective ways to minimize your legal liabilities. Access the expert guidance of top professionals across medical and legal fields in an easy-to-read format. Review the legal aspects of nearly every medical topic that impacts health care professionals. Quickly see how to minimize your legal liabilities with the aid of "Golden Rule" boxes. Understand the different types of malpractice suits and the physician's position and defense in each. See how concepts apply to specific scenarios through abundant case studies. Explore specific legal considerations for each medical specialty.




Clinical Guidelines and the Law of Medical Negligence


Book Description

This book critically considers the dynamic relationship between clinical guidelines and medical negligence litigation, arguing that a balance must be struck between blinkered reliance on guidelines and casual disregard. It explores connections between academic law and professional practice, bringing together an array of perspectives which reveal that although guidelines may not be dispositive, they nonetheless play an important role in medical negligence law.