MALPRACTICE
In law, malpractice refers to misconduct or negligence by a professional person,
such as a physician, lawyer or accountant. Such misconduct includes failure to
exercise the level of skill and learning expected of a licensed professional. The result of
malpractice to the client or patient is injury, damage or some loss owing to professional
incompetence. The official criteria for a valid medical malpractice claim are duty,
breach, damages and causation. The practitioner must have had a relationship to the
patient, which indicates that he or she had a duty to exercise ordinary care; must have
breached - that is, failed to measure up to - that duty, according to the applicable
standard of care; and because of that breach must have caused the patient physical
and monetary damages. If there is evidence of malpractice, a client may sue in a civil
action, seeking damages in the form of money. Those most likely to be sued are
surgeons, since malpractice is much easier to prove when a surgical operation has
been done. If, for example, a surgeon leaves a foreign object inside a closed wound,
the surgeon is clearly liable for the carelessness. Plastic surgeons are most at risk,
since their operations are done to improve the patient's appearance. Dissatisfied
patients may sue. Medical malpractice actions do three things: provide quality control
for the medical profession; provide some measure of compensation for the harm done;
and give emotional vindication to the plaintiff, which is a measure of his or her ability to
make a complaint and receive a satisfactory response.
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