Whenever a doctor’s substandard care has caused a patient to suffer a new injury, or an exaggeration of an old one, the legal and medical community view that same care as medical negligence. Medical negligence is one element of medical malpractice.
A negligent physician has been guilty of demonstrating an act of omission.
—That act could involve omission of a request for the patient’s signature on a form, one that is supposed to grant the patient’s approval for a given procedure.
—That act could involve omission of a test, or omission of some part of the entire listing of test results, in the report to a given patient’s doctor.
—A physician might also omit certain information from instructions to a patient, such as details on a prescribed medication’s possible side effects.
—A doctor’s failure to make and report a meaningful observation could be viewed as an instance of negligence.
A physician’s negligent act does not always cause the affected patient to become injured.
The patient’s health might be unaffected by the doctor’s omission. For instance, a delay in starting a medication might not cause the treated patient to endure a higher level of harm. However, whenever such an act of negligence has caused harm to the affected patient, it can be labeled as medical negligence.
The appearance of what conditions in a medical setting would indicate that medical negligence could qualify as medical malpractice.
—The negligent act has made the patient’s condition worse.
—The negligent act has caused unreasonable or unexpected complications.
—A physician’s negligence has created a need for further medical treatment, a need that had not been anticipated.
Could a hospital be guilty of medical negligence?
Yes, if it failed to note the negligent acts of a doctor in the hospital’s staff, or negligent behavior by a lower member of the staff. Personal injury lawyer in Fergus knows that if the same hospital had failed to take the proper action, after noting the existence of such behavior, then it could become guilty of medical malpractice.
How could a hospital become aware of negligent acts that had been carried out by a doctor on its staff?
The details on, and proof of that negligent performance would have to come to the attention of the guilty hospital’s chief administrator. If that administrator chose to do the right thing, and remove the offending physician from the hospital’s staff, then the entire hospital could be freed from charges of medical malpractice.
However, if the administrator chose to keep the offending doctor on the hospital’s staff, then the same administrator would be the head of an institution that could be charged with medical malpractice. Still, the patients in that same institution might not become aware of its poor status.