How Standards Of Care Affect Medical Malpractice Claims

When a medical malpractice attorney sits down to review a case, the standard of care involved is often central. Given how important this concept is to malpractice claims writ large, it's wise for clients to understand how it may affect their cases. You should know these four things about the subject.

Professional Standards

Every profession has standards, but medicine has some of the most important ones. If doctors, nurses, and technicians are going to provide care, they can't just do it willy-nilly.

Due to the number of different medical fields, though, there isn't a single standard of care for the entire industry. Also, given the specific circumstances of patients, written standards from a particular field may not tell the entire story.

A medical malpractice lawyer wants to get at a single question. Would a reasonable practitioner within the involved field object to what the defendant elected to do?

Expert Testimony

More than in many other types of injury cases, expert testimony matters when a medical malpractice attorney files a claim for a client. An expert's testimony will speak to the question of whether the defendant met the standard of care. Suppose a person sued a pharmacy because the pharmacist recommended a drug substitution that made the customer ill. An expert can speak to whether they believe the substitution was one that a reasonable pharmacist would be okay with.

Reasonableness

It's important to understand that a difference in opinion over treatment does not automatically equal malpractice. Consider how two surgeons might approach an operation. The odds are fairly low they would both perform it with precisely the same steps. It's possible a different surgeon would even move ahead with a different procedure.

The question isn't whether there were alternatives to the chosen course of treatment. Instead, the question is whether other practitioners would object to the choice. A procedure might be several decades out of date, for example, but it may not be malpractice as long as a doctor can perform it competently and skillfully.

Competency

An extension of the standard of care is the notion that a professional must also be competent in applying it. Suppose a plastic surgeon botched a facelift because they had trouble controlling their instruments. A medical malpractice lawyer might document similar recent incidents to document a pattern. Even if the doctor chose an accepted procedure, the pattern of incompetence speaks to a failure to administer a standard of care.

Contact a medical malpractice attorney to learn more.