Medical Malpractice Attorney in Davenport and Tampa, FL

Types of Medical Malpractice

There are a multitude of ways a healthcare provider can commit medical negligence. Most cases of medical malpractice, however, fall under a few general categories:

• Incorrect or Delayed Diagnosis
• Pregnancy or Birth Injuries
• Error in Prescribing or Administering Medication
• Improper or Incorrect Surgery

While breaking the types of negligence down into general categories can be helpful, it’s not exhaustive. Most cases may fall under these umbrellas, but many do not. If you have questions about the healthcare you’ve received, we recommend you contact an experienced attorney to walk you through the process.

Incorrect or Delayed Diagnosis

Studies have revealed that misdiagnosis, or an incorrect diagnosis, is the most common cause of the medical error. Disease or illness can be very complex, and our bodies react in a unique way. You may not be displaying the textbook symptoms of your illness, which can result in a misdiagnosis.

Given their experience and education, should your doctor have known what you were suffering from? Misdiagnoses can be life-threatening, and they may cause your doctor to waste precious time treating an issue that you don’t have.

Pregnancy or Birth Injuries

With all of our advancements in knowledge and technology, pregnancy and birth are still incredibly complex. There are many things that can go wrong, and disaster can occur in an instant.

These are some of the most complicated and devastating issues, as negligence can put both the mother and her child at risk.

We’ve made great strides in making pregnancy and childbirth as simple and safe as possible, but mistakes happen. Issues with childbirth or pregnancy do no automatically imply medical negligence. Medical malpractice occurs only when the injury or death happened as a direct result of the negligence.

Error in Prescribing or Administering Medication

Unfortunately, negligence involving medication is all too common. There is a whole chain of medical professionals that are involved any time medication is prescribed. Your prescription will run through doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and assistants before making it to your medicine cabinet.

The slightest mistake anywhere in the chain can have disastrous consequences. A single typo or decimal mistake can cause serious injury or even death. It’s easy to see how negligence could be a massive, life-altering problem with prescriptions.

Improper or Incorrect Surgery

Surgery is an incredibly complex operation. As with medication, you aren’t relying on one person to get it right. Errors can occur from surgeons, anesthesiologists, or surgical assistants. Some mistakes are on the smaller end, like controlling bleeding. Some mistakes, on the other hand, are of a massive scale.

It might surprise you to learn that surgeons have been documented performing surgery on the wrong body part, and even on the wrong patient in extreme cases.

Anesthesia also has plenty of potential for error. There are many different types of anesthetics, different people react differently to anesthesia. There are also complex equations that need to be taken into account to ensure the proper dosing.

What Causes Medical Malpractice?

There are many different factors that can lead to medical malpractice or negligence. Here are three common factors that can lead to the error:

• The recent rise of HMOs
• The long hours medical professionals commonly work
• A shortage of trained nurses

HMOs, or Health Maintenance Organizations

In recent years, HMOs have risen dramatically in prevalence. An HMO is a type of health insurance plan. In a typical health maintenance organization, you are limited to treatment from doctors who work with or are contracted by the organization.

There are many rules and regulations that govern care from an HMO. Except in the most extreme cases, out-of-network care isn’t covered. Many also require you to live or work within a specific area that is covered by the HMO.

Patients forced to operate within an HMO may not be referred to the appropriate specialists. If they are referred to the right specialist, it may be after the illness or injury has become difficult to treat.

Long Hours and Extended Shifts

Another major cause of medical negligence is the difficult schedules that healthcare providers are often forced to work, especially interns and junior level professionals.

Whether it’s in the medical field or on the roads, we’ve seen time and time again just how deadly sleep deprivation can be.

A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information revealed that 87% of physicians working on-call shifts slept for only 5 hours or less. Medical professionals hold some of the most important jobs in our society, and yet they aren’t getting even the bare minimum amount of sleep required to function at a high level. That’s how injury and negligence occur.

Trained Nurse Shortage

We’re headed toward a serious nurse shortage in our country. Today, people are living longer than ever before. As our population ages, so does the need for medical assistance. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, more and more nurses are needed to properly staff our nation’s medical industry.

Without a proper staff of trained nurses, accidents are inevitable. Doctors only have so much time for each patient, and our resources are being stretched as nurses have to cover more and more patients. Without a proper employee roster, we’re headed for more and more medical errors.