What is clinical negligence?
Medical facilities are one of the most important institutions in the modern day. With the increasingly high number illnesses and risks, the need for quality medical treatment is also on the rise. Unfortunately, many hospitals are not able to keep up with the constant inflow of patients with varying degree of seriousness. Under the high pressure, sometimes the hospital staff may miss some details. While it may be harmless in most occupations, in the medical field it could have serious repercussions on the patient, hence the staff becomes liable and probably even a candidate for legal proceedings. Such lapses on the part of the medical staff fall under the clinical negligence.
Some common clinical negligence instances:
1. Incorrect Administration of Medication: These could be administration of improper drugs, incorrect dosage, at wrong times, or even lack of it.
2. Lack of Consent: Many times the hospital staff fails to provide the patient and their close relations all the relevant information and risk details about a treatment before administering it.
3. Improper Diagnosis: This could include failure to carry out correct tests, or misinterpretation of test results, not consulting the specialist, etc. These can lead to delayed treatment or incorrect treatment aggravating the medical condition or affecting the health of the patient adversely.
4. Wrongful Death: While death is inevitable, it need not be invited unnecessarily. However, clinical negligence can lead to accidental deaths too. Negligence has led to death of children in the hospitals due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Other times, patients unaware of the allergic reactions to certain medications too may suffer death as a result of the treatment.
5. Supervision Lapses: These could be allowing the patient to move around without supervision, physical attacks on the unattended patient by people in the hospital or other patients, infections due to lack of care from the staff, incorrect use of medical equipment on the patient, etc.
There are quite a few other niche aspects of clinical negligence, but typically these are the broad categories. As a victim of such malpractices, you are entitled for compensation from the erring institution. Each of the above mentioned categories have varying degree of success in terms of getting compensation. While you may get some monetary compensation, it is never going to undo the medical damage inflicted on your body, hence make sure that you also work hard on avoiding such negligence whenever possible.
Article Source: HealthSnare.com
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Dave Saltonstall
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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 Time: 2:19 AM
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