George Washington, the first president of the United States, died in 1799 when about two and a half liters of his blood was lost--approximately half the amount of the average blood content in a man's body. What is more surprising is that Washington was not even injured then. Three successive doctors deliberately bled him in an attempt to cure his sore throat.
In the anecdote above, the doctors really intended to treat the former US President of his disorder, but they ended up killing him instead, unintentionally of course. This professional misconduct is what we call malpractice.
Malpractice is any act or behavior of a professional that does not meet the standards of his profession. Often, this results to provable damages to his patients or clients. Such misconduct or omission of wrongdoing may be due to negligence, ignorance of something he should have known, or intentional fault. However, the exercise of professional judgment, no matter how detrimental it is to the patient or client, is not considered malpractice.
Except in cases of really obvious and/or intentional misconduct, to prove malpractice, there should be:
(a) an expert's testimony as to what really is the acceptable standard of care applied to the specific behavior which is claimed to be malpractice, and
(b) the expert's testimony that the professional was not able to reach such standard. The defendant can then get his own expert to contradict that testimony.
Professionals who are prone to lawsuits based on allegations of malpractice include lawyers, physicians, nurses, dentists, accountants, architects, teachers, engineers, and real estate brokers.
In order to file a complaint of malpractice against a professional in some states, there must be a written demand or notice that gives the institute, say hospital or university, where he is practicing his profession, a chance to settle the matter before a suit is filed.
The primary reasons for observing malpractice among professionals and their clients are really unfounded. Actual malpractice cases, on the other hand, are mostly based on being unhappy with the result of services rendered even if they turned out well, miscommunication between professionals and their clients, feeling of anger toward the professional, and greed.
Malpractice [http://www.WetPluto.com/Dental-Malpractice.html] provides detailed information on Malpractice, Medical Malpractice, Medical Malpractice Attorney, Dental Malpractice and more. Malpractice is affiliated with Whistleblower Protection Acts.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Stith
No comments:
Post a Comment