Medical Malpractice
Many people may not realize that medical malpractice is a real
and ever growing problem. People die everyday from wrong
diagnoses and incorrect treatments. The problem is that most of
these cases are private and many are never reported. A lot of
the population does not know enough about medical practices to
know when they are faced with a malpractice problem. They are
forced to take the word of the doctor and staff at hand. This
may explain why only a small number of claims are filed for
malpractice suits and only about half of them actually win the
lawsuit.
Physicians have medical malpractice insurance that will cover
them in the event someone files a malpractice claim against
them. In the past the cost for this type of insurance was a flat
rate, but due to the fact that medical malpractice suits are on
the rise, the cost for this insurance has also begun to rise.
There are not as many providers for this type of insurance as it
use to be. This is because medical costs are going up and it is
very difficult to make a profit in this business.
Things that can be considered a medical malpractice would be
failure to treat a medical problem correctly that causes a new
medical problem or makes the existing one worse. If a physician
fails to diagnose a disease, detects the problem to late to help
the patient or fails to treat the condition correctly after it
has been diagnosed it could be considered malpractice. If
problems occur during the use of anesthesia or surgery that was
due to the fault of the doctor or a member of the staff it could
be malpractice. Also prescribing the wrong medication for a
patient or medicine that interferes with other known conditions
the patient may suffer from is also grounds for malpractice.
Medical malpractice suits are normally always expensive and very
complicated. You must be able to provide all of the necessary
information to your attorney to have a chance of winning a
lawsuit of this nature. This would be information such as a
detailed list of the patient's medical history. This would
include all doctors and hospitals or clinics that the patient
has visited and all treatments that the patients received during
this time, even if it seems unimportant. All medicines taken and
prescribed must be recorded and a written description of all
conversations that have taken place will be needed along with
the dates everything took place. A medical expert will review
the case and will ultimately be the one to decide if the suit is
legitimate.