What Is Considered Malpractice and What Are the Consequences - Essay Example

?What is considered malpractice and what are the consequences? What is considered malpractice and what are the consequences? Medicalmalpractices are professional negligence within the healthcare profession. Such practices may include provision of substandard treatment to patients thereby leading to harm or injury to the patient in question. Notably, some of the medical malpractices sometimes lead to the death of patients. On the other hand, there are some medical malpractices that are considered or categorized as minor (Frakes. n.d.). This negligence constitutes medical errors that possibly originate from treatment, diagnosis, medical dosage, aftercare, and or health management. These errors usually occur due to the fact that nothing was done to prevent their occurrences or there was an omission or mere negligence. Nonetheless, these medical malpractices are usually punishable by medical malpractice laws. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing the application of these laws including how and where they have been applied. Finally, the essay will analyze the challenges that hinder effective application of the medical malpractice laws. The main intent of the application of the medical malpractice laws is to ensure that the patient in question is compensated following the ordeals of the medical practices. However, it is worth noting these laws and their applications usually differ significantly. Different countries and states usually apply these laws differently. Therefore, it worth for the medical practitioners to understand the kinds of laws they are liable to in cases they commit atrocities to their patients. Nonetheless, it should also be noted that doctors and or hospitals as well as health care professional are usually never liable to all harms that a patient may suffer while undertaking medical treatment. The only cases when the hospitals and medical practitioners are liable to malpractice laws are when the healthcare provided to a patient is substance. Therefore, these laws tend to determine the competence of doctors and practices they might have not taken not to harm the patient. Medical malpractices are usually expensive to the medical professions and medical institutions. Additionally, most of the time medical malpractices lead to time wastage especially during legal battle between the patient and the medical practitioner or the institution (Johnson, Sloan, and Kimbrough, 2009). The malpractices are expensive in the sense that whenever a patient win such cases, the medical institutions are often required to compensate the customer dearly of all the damaged as determine and spelled by the court. Add2itionally, the malpractices are expensive on all the involved parties since it will involvement of medical laws to help in determining or defending the involved accusations. On the other hand, the medical malpractices are time consuming particularly on the medical practitioners’ time since they the law requires them to be present at the court to answer to the accusation of the patient. Other than laws of determining the malpractices within the health care systems, there are malpractices reforms laws that have been proposed by the policy makers to reduce occurrences of malpractices within the medical institution. The implementation or the need of implementation of these reforms has increased in the insurance rates. This is because the policy implementer will be sourced outside the medical sectors and they need to be budgeted for. Therefore, it would be appropriate for the medical practitioners to provide their patients with required quality Medicare among other health care management requirements. It should be noted that despite the positive intension of the proper and accurate of medical services and management to the patients, the availability and applications as well as the adjustment of medical malpractices laws and reforms have since attracted mixed reactions among nearly all the medical stakeholders. Some medical stakeholders think that application of the malpractice laws and implementation of the proposed reforms governing the malpractices will affect the quality of health care services provided to patients while others feel that such medical laws should be effected or impacted and reforms adjusted. The antagonists argue on the point of view that medical practitioners will ever want to provide quality service to their patients. These actions may be too demanding that if the medical professionals do not have quality medical services and management, they may not provide patients with medication at all for the fear that they may face the medical malpractice laws in case their services may turn to be a malpractice. Therefore, they strongly recommend the abolition of medical malpractice laws and their associated reforms. On the other hand, persons who support medical malpractice laws argue that such laws and associated as well as [proposed reforms should implement to reduces cases of injuries and on the extreme, deaths that are usually accelerated by medical malpractices. Moreover, this group argue that implementation of these laws and reforms will help in reducing medical costs especially be reducing insurance rates. In addition, they state that more costs will be reduced since the medical practitioners are for quality services, there will be law chances of time and money wastage battling for justice or compensation in the corridors of justice. Nonetheless, I feel that those sides have equal distribution of ideas; however, it will not be appropriate to leave the medical services at the hand of health care managers and medical practitioners. In other words, lack of reinforcement of the medical malpractice laws and its associated reforms will make doctors among other medical practitioners to be lazy in adhering to cords and ethics that are required in the medical sector. Therefore, creation of such open conditions wills only leads to more injuries and harm to the patients. Moreover, tight requirement of quality medical service delivery without which the persons involved in medical malpractices is treated as per the requirement of the associated medical laws will enhance quality service deliver within the medical institution and among the medical practitioners. All service delivering institutions need to be governed to ensure quality and ethical service delivery. Hence, medical malpractice laws are vital tools in checking, controlling, and ensuring quality medical service delivery to the patients (Johnson, Sloan, and Kimbrough, 2009). Moreover, due to changing work environments in all sectors of economy, the medical reforms should be adjusted to conform to the current medical quality delivery. Additionally, the reforms will increase quality in health care management by ensuring all medical practitioners are accountable to their actions with their practice. References Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Frakes. M. (n.d).Does Medical Malpractice Deter? The Impact of Tort Reforms and Malpractice Standard Reforms on Healthcare Quality. Retrived December 9, 2013, from https://www.law.northwestern.edu/colloquium/law_economics/documents/Frakes-Medical-Malpractice-Tort-Reforms.pdf Johnson, M., Sloan, F. & Kimbrough, K. (2009). Do Medical Malpractice Reforms Affect Health Care Costs and Outcomes? Durham, North Carolina: Duke University. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://econ.duke.edu/uploads/assets/dje/2009/Johnson.pdf. Read More