5 Flashcards
Concerned with laws designed to protect all members of society from unlawful acts by others; i.e., felonies and misdemeanors
* Action?
Criminal
A felony is a crime (i.e., murder, assault, and rape) punishable by death or imprisonment.
Misdemeanors are considered lesser offenses and usuallt carry a penalty of a fine or less than 1 year in jail.
* Action?
Criminal
Concerned with actions between two private parties, such as individiduals or organizations; constitute the bulk of the legal actions delath with in the medical office or other healthcare facilities
* Action?
Civil
Damages may be awarded in a court of law and result in monetary policies
* Action?
Civil
It a law where most common civil actions in healthcare are based
Tort law
It is a wrongful act other than breach of contract committed against someone’s person, property, reputation, or other legally protected right, for which the individual is entitled to damages awarded by the court.
* It is an act that is committed without just cause and may be intentional (willful) or unintentional (accidental)
Tort
An act or threat causing another to be in fear of immediate battery (harmful touching)
* Threatening someone / to stab a patient with a needle
* Defined as making someone fear that you will use force to harm them
* Involved causing someone to fear that bodily harm will come to them
* Only inflicting fear (threatening); no physical contact
Assault
An intentional harmful or offensive touching of, or use of force on, another person without consent or legal justification
* Intentional harm may range from permanent disfigurement to merely grabbing something out of another person’s hand without permission
* It is usually both a tort and criminal offense
* Actual physical contact must occur
* Intentionally holds a patient down or uses more force than necessary
* Purposely touching or applying force on other person or things related to the person without his consent with intention to harm the person
* With physical contact and with an act of intentionally adding force
Battery
A deceitful practice or false portrayal of facts either by words or by conduct, often done to obtain money or property.
* Ex. Billing for services that have not been provided
Fraud
The violation of one’s right to be left alone. It can involve a physical intrusion or the unauthorized publishing or release of private information, which can also be considered a breach of confidentiality
Invasion of privacy
The failure to keep privileged medical information private.
* Ex. Unauthorized release of patient information such as laboratory results
Breach of confidentiality
A type of negligence committed by a professional. The training and experience of the accused individual is taken into consideration when deving whether an act reulting in injury should be labeled negligence or malpractice. A claim of this implies that a greater standard of care was owed to the injured person than the “reasonable person” standard associated with negligence
Malpractice
The failure to exercise due care, the level of that person of ordinary intelligence and good sense would exercise under the given circumstances. In other words, it is doing something that a reasonable person would not do, or not doing something a that a reasonable person would do.
* If a medical procedure results in injury and there is no intent to injure
Negligence
What must be present to claim negligence?
- A legal duty or obligation owed by one person to another
- A breaking or breach of that duty or obligation
- Harm done as a direct result of the action
A Latin phrase meaning “the thing speaks for itself,” which applies to the rule of evidence in a case of negligence.
Ex. A homebound patient sitting on a kitchen barstool faints while having blood drawn and falls, hitting his head. A head injury develops that was obviously due to the fall. If a lawsuit results, the burden of proof is shifted to the phlebotomist, who must prove that he or she was not negligent
Res ipsa loquitur
