Medicolegal Considerations Flashcards
- Negligence by a healthcare provider
- Professional negligence by act or omission by a health care
provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error.
Medical Malpractice
A wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.
Torts
2 Types of Torts
- Those resulting from intentional action
- Those resulting from unintentional action
means the conscious or willful disregard of the rights and safety of another.
intentional misconduct
Forms of Intentional Misconduct
- Civil Assault
- Civil Battery
- Invasion of privacy
- Defamation
If a patient is reasonably fearful that he or she was injured by the imprudent conduct of the radiologic technologist/nuclear medicine
Civil Assault
When actual bodily harm has been inflicted on patient as a result of intentional physical contact between a health care provider and a patient.
Civil Battery
The unjustifiable intrusion into the personal life of another without consent
Invasion of Privacy
Slander (spoken) and Libel (written)
Defamation
A type of unintended accident that leads to injury, property damage or financial loss
Unintentional misconduct
- defined as a breach or a failure to fulfill an expected standard of care.
- form of unintentional misconduct
Negligence
Elements that health care professionals found negligent in a court and subsequently held liable for damages
- That a duty of care(or standard of care was owed by the radiologic
technologist/nuclear medicine technologist to the patient - That a breach of that duty occurred by the radiologic technologist/nuclear medicine technologist.
- That the cause of injury was the radiologic technologist’s/nuclear medicine technologist negligence
- That the injury to the patient actually occurred
consent to surgery by a patient or to participation in a medical experiment by a subject after achieving an understanding of what is involved.
Patients Consent or Informed Consent
A legal doctrine which states that, in many circumstances, an employer is
responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of
their employment
Respondeat Superior
(Let the Master answer)
A doctrine in tort law that infers negligence from the very nature of an
accident or injury, in the absence of direct evidence on how any defendant behaved
Res Ipsa Loquitur
(The thing speak for itself)
Legal Considerations of the Radiologic Technologist/Nuclear Medicine Technologist
- To meet the condition for res ipsa loquitur
- because the hospital or the physicians are immune from action or because the radiologic technologist/nuclear medicine technologist is not directly controlled by the physician
- because the hospital or physicians or both cannot be sued as defendants because they are not directly negligent, and proximate causation cannot be applied to the hospital or physicians
- because of various trial tactics
- to secure the radiologic technologist/nuclear medicine technologist in pre-trial testimony and as a witness in subsequent court testimony
- because the plaintiff presumes that the radiologic technologist has assets or insurance
- because it aid or is essential to the case
Conclusion
- you have a duty to give high-quality care to your patients, and this duty includes not causing them injury.
- If you professionally apply your knowledge and training in radiologic technology/nuclear medicine technologist, thoroughly explain
procedures to your parents, work with extreme care, and question any abnormal instructions, you will probably never be involved in a lawsuit
