Malpractice/negligence and liability - Essay Example

It is professional negligence involving omissions or acts below standards. Liability is the legal responsibility and accountability those found guilty of the above offenses will be faced with. This paper will describe the types of liabilities present in Jose’s case and who might be liable for his disability, the possible court ruling and reasons with an example. There are three possible liabilities in this scenario. First, the institution may be faced with hospital negligence. Secondly, the emergency room physician may bear liability for doctor malpractice and failure to communicate, and thirdly, the anesthetist may be liable for negligence of duty.

In the physician’s case, if he is fully trained, he is well aware that situations in a hospital’s emergency room are always urgent and change rapidly (Leonhardt, 2009). These situations call for immediate diagnosis, attention and appropriate care at the right time to ensure recovery and survival of patients, and the physician was responsible of administering such diagnosis. However, in disregard to these facts, it took extraordinarily long before an x-ray was done. The doctor further postponed the necessary surgery to the following day because the anesthetist would not be available till morning.

If from his diagnosis he had established that surgery must be done on Jose’s shoulder, he owned the responsibility of communicating with the management and asking for an anesthetist immediately. These incidents constitute failure to make a patient’s prompt and proper diagnosis, to attend to them on time and to conduct appropriate procedures with the urgency of an emergency room. On the part of the hospital, we are not clearly told whether or not it was their arrangement and within their knowledge that the anesthetist would not be on duty during the night.

However, if this was the hospital’s arrangement, then it may have to bear liability for hospital negligence and malpractice. Just like the physician, the hospital’s management, and specifically the shift manager, knows of the crucial nature of the emergency room. The only reason the hospital is open at night is because it expects to receive and admit patients. It is, therefore, against ethics of practice to be willing to admit patients but they do not have arrangements that ensure that all the required and qualified professionals are available at the same time (Leonhardt, 2009).

This constitutes both negligence and malpractice on the part of the hospital’s management, because they are aware of the high stress, quick paced crisis management surroundings of the emergency room. Thirdly, on the anesthetic’s part, we are not clearly told whether or not he was supposed to be working that night’s shift. However, if he was to be on duty but absconded, then he may bear liability for neglect and absconding from duty, thus endangering the lives of patients. It is his responsibility to ensure that he is available whenever the emergency room is in operation, unless he has prior arrangements with the hospital.

The surgery could not be performed during the night because he was not in the hospital to administer anesthesia. This led directly to the delay of surgery and Jose’s disability. In my opinion, I think liability may fall upon different parties depending on the findings of the