11/7 + malpractice Flashcards
malpractice refers to what type of law
civil law
professional negligence
civil law looks at
contracts and torts (personal injuries)
torts can be
intention al - intended assumed
unintentional
unintentional tort example
negligence
- failure to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances
negligence is
a unintentional tort
failure to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstance
malpractice = professional nelgigence
malpractice =
professional negligence - the dentist has a duty to the patient to disclose relevant facts about the risks of treatment
- if these risks are not disclosed and a patient suffers on of these risks, the patient may sue the dentist for malpractice
place of public accomodation
a lot of doctors work in these places of accomodations
like hotels, your rent property
fail to exercise a degree of care which a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstance filed for
civil tort of negligence
elements of negligence / malpractice
duty
breach
causation
harm
ALL FOUR MUST BE FOUND BY THE COURT TO BE GUILTY!
duty is established if
you are the doctor of a patient on record
like patient asks for supina – court order to direct release of record
- give record to the court
harm
physical harm
CANNOT BE EMOTIONAL
what type of harm with negligence / malpractice
has to be physical
- doesnt have to kill
usually physical harm results in financial burden
intervention or lack there of that caused
breach
component of the negligence / malpractice
break some type of responsibility - was not fulfilled
important to find out –did that failure DIRECTLY cause the harm??
causation
component of the negligence / malpractice requires proximate cause
has to be a direct relationship between the harm and cause
did the dotor break a responsibility that directly caused a physical harm?
which are easy / hard to find in court with malpractice
easy – duty and
harder - causation
what do experts testify to?
to the standard of care
what it is witin this case and talk about liklihood that this caused the physical harm to the patietn
standard of care and causation discussed
in order to determine malpractice in terms of duty?
the duty to treat has been broken which has proximately caused a physical harm to the patient
standard of care
reasonable and accepted treatment options
clinical guidelines
court standard
reasonable person / doctor standard
- what would a reasobable doctor done in this same situation
national – now on a national standard
best ways to generally avoid malpractice
- obtain informed consent – like explain to them so that they understand
- provide them with the standard of care
critical to charting — demonstrate that providing standard of care
informed refusal
a fully informed, competent patient refuses the recommende tretment or any treatment at all
elements of informed consent
informed
voluntary
understanding
place of public accomodatino
invites people to come
any type of business entity that invites people in
welcome and invite to come in
what does there have to be for negligence / malpractice
place of public accomodation – like that of a dental office
who could be sued for negligence
any person who runs a place of public accomodation
sued for ?
malpractice – under negligence – but because have a license
proximate cause??
determined by
direct causal link between what the doctor did or didn’t do that resulted in the harm
rely on expert witnesses
- testify on the standard of care
standard of care
is the degree of skill or care practiced by a reasonbable professional practicing in the same field
the standard of care pertains to what reasonably prudent dentist would have done under similar circumstances
standard of care usually come out on
clinical guidelines and reasonable and accepted treatment options
why update medical everytime
may change the tx that day
legal standard of care
standard of care is a legal term denoting the level of conduct a physician or healthcare provider must meet in treating a patient so as nont to be guilty of negligence, usually called malpractice
the standard is defined by what a reasonably prudent healthcare provider would do in the same or similar circumstances
ethical standard of care
the conscientious application of up-to date knowledge, competent skill, and reasoned judgement in the best interest of the patient, honoring the autonomy of the patient
- keep up with the always changing field of medicine, CE’s and literature
a bad result outside the standard of care?
no – providing that the patient has received the minimum level of care to which he/she is entitled
this includes proper referral to another dentist when the level of care which the patient is entitled is beyond the dentists capability
intention in malpractice cases
not looked at like the torts = intentional
this could be unintentional but harm could still occur - looks more at if harm occured, was there a follow up
what did or didnt happen??
intention in malpractice cases
these are UNINTENTIONAL
not looked at like the torts = intentional
this could be unintentional but harm could still occur - looks more at if harm occured, was there a follow up
what did or didnt happen??
