Medical malpractice is a big issue nowadays. Doctors, nurses, dentist and other health-related professions studied hard, take qualifying and licensure examinations, and sometimes enrolled themselves in continuing educational programs like master’s or doctorate degree but still they still commit errors. Everyday in our life we commit mistake, that’s normal; but mistake in medical field is a grave threat.
What is really medical malpractice?
Medical malpractice is care that deviates from expected medical community approved practices and results in death or injury to the patient, as defined in Wikipedia. It is clearly stated that it’s a professional negligence which means done by a professional (doctor, nurse, etc.). Why did this happen? Sometimes it’s individualized. There are reasons behind these malpractices like lack of knowledge, behavioral problems, and indistinct job description.
What are the common medical malpractices?
Medication errors. This is the most common type of malpractice. There are so many types of medications; some of them have names that are similar in sound but different classification. Example is omeprazole which is a proton pump inhibitor, metronidazole which is an antibiotic and mebendazole which is an anti-helminthic. Most nurses in this case administer the wrong medication because of the similarity in the sounds of the names of the drugs. Therefore, to prevent this type of malpractice, it is highly recommended to utilize the 10 rights in administering medications.
Misdiagnosis. Misdiagnosis is the failure of the doctor to determine the real condition/status of the patient. This become rampant nowadays because of the increasing number of diseases discovered and the similarity of the symptom a disease condition may present. There were so many cases related to this incident. A wrong diagnosis could be very fatal and costly. You are spending for the treatment regimen the doctor prescribed but instead of cure, it could lead to serious injury. Specialization in the field of medicine and utilization of modern diagnostic facilities however may lower the chance of this kind of medical malpractice.
Surgical Malpractice. Instruments left inside the abdomen of the patient was one the cases of surgical malpractice. Another is wrong incision made to do a nephrectomy, instead of left kidney the right kidney was removed. There was also a case of amputation of the good leg rather than the diseased leg. These incidents had become controversial. This kind of errors was due to miscommunication. There should be a good endorsement done in every department of what the surgical procedure is all about and a good collaboration from all of the health care team.
In medical field, errors must be reduced to the lowest possible number; because here, it’s the life of the patient that is at stake. If you are in a medical field, be sure to be knowledgeable, skillful and competent enough to perform your duty in order to prevent medical malpractice.