Analysis of Failure to Restrain Caused Patient Fall Case - Essay Example

The kind of tort that is involved in the case is described within the essay about the legal definition of negligence. Furthermore, a discussion of the administrator’s role in ensuring that providers meet their legal responsibilities is discussed. Medical negligence is described as a kind of conduct by healthcare providers that emanate from carelessness or heedlessness resulting in a deviation from the standards of care which are postulated as reasonable by society, regulations, ethics, and policies of healthcare practice (Pozgar, 2009).

There is evidence of heedlessness on the part of the X-ray technician as demonstrated by the lack of restraining the plaintiff to the straps that are attached to the X-ray chair during the medical examination and procedure. It is because of this heedlessness that the fall of the patient during her seizure led to the injury. The patent was unstable as revealed by nausea and drowsiness of her condition. In addition, the level of consciousness that the plaintiff had during the X-ray procedure is said to be generally poor.

The deviation of the technician from the standards of care is demonstrated by the denial that the patient did not fall. This denial is even though the patient had a seizure at some point during the X-ray procedure. Additionally, it was later proved by the physician that there was a deflection of the plaintiff’s nose. More significant is the fact that the specialist noted that it needed a significant fall for the plaintiff to incur such a degree of nose injury and deflection. In light of these arguments and reflections, it is arguable that the case meets the efficacy of medical negligence.

The negligence, in this case, falls within the tort nonfeasance (Marsh & Reynard, 2009). In medical negligence, nonfeasance refers to a situation where there is the failure of a practitioner to act prudently and reasonably or related circumstances that lead to negative implications for the patient (Pozgar, 2009). In this case, the X-ray technician failed to act by not restraining the patient into the straps of the X-ray chair. In this sense, it is evident that the failure of the technician to act in safeguarding the patient led to the injury that she incurred during the procedure.

It is also possible that the technician failed to report the seizure of the patient to the health providers within the X-ray unit which led to the significant fall and injury as presented in the case. The element of negligence which is demonstrated in this case is that of causation (Steven Bailey & Bailey, 2007). This is because; the falling of the plaintiff was foreseeable from his drowsiness, nausea, and the symptoms that emanated from her surgery. Proper care for the patient could have been taken during the procedure to avoid falling and the consequential injury and legal suit.

Hospital administrators have obligations in the management of health care which are related to ensuring that healthcare providers adhere to the legal and ethical standards of medical practice. The roles of the administrators are to ensure that there is proper documentation of all procedures and taking of patient history (Brenner, Brenner, Awerbuch & Horwitz, 2012). This would be a guide to other health providers in determining the most effective approach to handling the patient. More significantly, the administrator of a health facility lays a monitoring role where he or she ensures that practitioners and their activities are closely observed for adherence to the standards of practice (Qinghua, 2008).

The administrator also represents the health care professionals in matters related to a breach of ethical and legal conduct by, for example, allocating lawyers to represent them. More significantly, administrators play an important role in ensuring that all providers take responsibility for their actions (Wright, 2011). This includes legal and ethical responsibility for all forms of medical practice and treatment of the patients.