Malpractice Lawsuits And Professional Negligence In Healthcare Settings

Defining Negligence in Healthcare

The number of healthcare professionals, especially nurses, becoming defendants in malpractice lawsuits has been on the increase, despite numerous efforts by relevant parties to educate this group on their professional and legal jurisdictions. Charges of negligence can often result from actions or omissions, which can result in intentional or unintentional injuries on patients. This has been largely attributed to failure to follow stipulated standards of clinical practice (White & Truax, 2007). Negligence in healthcare can be defined as the violation of set standards of practice or the failure to exercise the stipulated level of care in the performance of duties and responsibilities. In assessing or proving cases of negligence, four elements have to be taken into consideration including the duty, breach of the aforementioned, causation and the damages (Croke, 2003). In this case, duty refers to the lawful obligations of healthcare professionals to follow predetermined standards concerning patient care, breach of duty is contrary to this and refers to violation of stipulated guidelines, causation can be actual or proximate and refers to the connection between negligent actions and the injury or damage that results and finally, damages are the aftermath of negligence, usually in the form of harm or injury to a patient. Overall, it is the responsibility of the nurse and other professionals in the healthcare setting to ensure the safety of patients.

Negligence Torts That Result in Malpractice Lawsuits

According to Croke (2003), there are different categorizations of negligent issues that often result in malpractice lawsuits. These represent the evidence that can be presented by a plaintiff during the establishment of whether or not a negligent act took place in a healthcare setting. They include failure to conform to standards of practice and patient care, failure to use medical equipment correctly and responsibly, failure to document relevant information and communicate, failure in advocating for a patient regardless of the nurses’ beliefs and finally, the failure in monitoring and performing assessments on the patient. Different standards of care such as hospital policies on patient handling have evolved over time in order to eradicate cases of substandard care in hospitals. These standards are useful because they ensure that patient safety is upheld, and they provide a basis for assessing breach or violation of duty and responsibility on the part of the healthcare professional (Weld & Garmon Bibb, 2009). The plaintiff can, therefore, present evidence of this violation in court against the defendant. Secondly, all healthcare professionals should be well versed with medical equipment and use them responsibly. As such, they have to be aware of the equipment capabilities, safety features, limitations and hazards that may occur. Any modifications against the manufacturer’s recommendations on the use of various equipment should be avoided. In the event that wrongful or irresponsible use of equipment has been discovered, this can be used as evidence by the plaintiff to show negligence. It is important for healthcare givers, especially nurses, to monitor and assess the condition of the patient and communicate with relevant parties in an open manner. Because the health status of patients changes differently, sudden or progressively, healthcare givers are usually first to notice and take relevant action.

Therefore, their accuracy in making assessments and communicating can make the difference between life and death. If it is proven that various aspects of vital communication, especially timelines and changes as well as inaccurate assessments were performed, this can be used in court as evidence (White & Truax, 2007). Nurses should therefore accurately communicate changes and perform correct assessments to determine the level of change. Documentation of patient information is also the responsibility of healthcare givers and must correctly reflect on the process, diagnosis, and assessments, plans for intervention, evaluation and implementation as well as the patient’s response. Failure to follow this can be used in court as evidence of negligence because it is treated as a breach of standards of care. Finally, health professionals have a responsibility to act as patients’ advocates. This means that they should follow ethical guidelines and strive to offer excellent patient care even when they contradict the professional’s own ethical beliefs. Violation of this can also be presented as evidence by the plaintiff on negligence in a healthcare setting (Weld & Garmon Bibb, 2009).

In response to claims of negligence, some of the defences that can be offered by the defendant to be able to refute a plaintiff’s evidence include contributory and comparative negligence which can transfer the burden of proof to the plaintiff, who will have the task of proving the absence or violation of care (Studdert, Mello & Brennan, 2004). Contributory negligence argues that the injured patient personally contributed to the damage and therefore failed to protect himself as required. If proven, the plaintiff would be unable to recover damages. Comparative negligence is however based on the concept of fairness, and the plaintiff may only recover his damages if the degree of negligence his part does not exceed 50%. As such, the liability of each party is determined according to their contribution towards negligence and consequent injury and damage. Consequently, defences can be based on the failure of the plaintiff to prove claims or assumptions of risk.

Statutes of Limitations refer to state or federal laws that determine the amount of time for which an individual has to seek legal action following violations such as negligence. Statutes of limitations protect both the professional nurse defendants and the injured parties despite seeming harsh in some cases. These laws protect nurse defendants by reducing the timespan because allowing a longer length of time puts them at a disadvantage in seeking defense, which is unfair. Reasons for a consequent reduction in time can be a fading recollection of witnesses after a long time, disappearance of evidence and missing witnesses. To the injured parties, these statutes provide protection from tardy or malicious legal action. Consequently, dormant claims usually have a cruel motive rather than justice and plaintiffs with valid causes usually pursue justice with diligence under stipulated timelines (Malveaux, 2005).

A quasi-intentional tort is a civil wrong that is based on a speech by an individual or an entity against another party, which results in reputational damage or economic harm. In healthcare settings, this can be in the form of character defamation or invasion of a patient’s privacy (Constantino et al., 2014). Nurses can protect patients from this by acquiring the consent of the patient before any procedure is undertaken, to avoid cases of negligence. Some of the legal safeguards that can be undertaken by a nurse aside from informed consent include competent practice, collective bargaining, patient education and documentation of procedures done. It is the responsibility of the nurse to ensure that the provider has the necessary information required and that the patient has understood the information being passed. Consequently, they should ensure that the patient signs and gives consent and give any clarifications that may be needed by the patient concerning healthcare and well-being. The nurse manager also has the capacity to prevent quasi-intentional torts in the same measure as the nurse, the only difference being that the nurse manager acts as a supervisor or overall officer to ensure that the nurses are effectively performing their duties and responsibilities.

Conclusion

In the U.S., prosecution of medical errors is done under a tort system with the aim of deterring incidences of negligence in healthcare settings by punishing negligent healthcare givers and monetarily compensating injured parties. However, this is only possible if the patients’ injury can be proved to be attributable to negligence (Stubenrauch, 2007). All healthcare professionals should, therefore, seek to act according to the standards of care set up and uphold patient safety above all. Aside from using the courts, mediation and arbitration can be used as alternative methods of resolving these kinds of disputes.

References

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