Medical Malpractice Cases – How Outsourcing can help?

Medical malpractice cases are one of the most common lawsuits concerning personal injuries. Malpractice can be defined as the failure to provide the required level of medical care to the patient. The malpractice impacts the patient physically, but in many circumstances, it also impacts the patient psychologically and financially.  The harm and damage may last a lifetime.

Understanding Medical Malpractice

The symptoms/side-effects occurring due to malpractice are oftentimes projected by the doctor to a patient as a normal post-procedure outcome, which will fade with time. Meanwhile, the statute of limitations begins to run in many states from the date of the negligent act or omission. Patients may delay consulting an attorney, as they believe that the effects are normal as informed to them by hospitals/doctors.

By the time the patient reaches the law firms or attorneys, a significant amount of time may have lapsed.  This may limit the time the attorney has to obtain and adequately review the medical records and investigate the claim of malpractice.

Medical Malpractice – Frequent Types

Some of the frequent occurring medical negligence are,

  • Delayed, incorrect, or inaccurate diagnosis: The delay in detecting the underlying disease will lead to the progression of the disease, which could have otherwise been treated if diagnosed in time. Similar is the case with an incorrect diagnosis which leads to incorrect treatment and causes a new condition or worsens the underlying disease.
  • Surgical inaccuracy or error: High level of skill and training is required to perform any type of surgery. A diminutive number of mistakes during surgery can lead to fatal effects on a patient’s health and life. Incorrect site surgeries are a worst-case scenario, where carelessness while reading or writing a pre-operative medical record leads the surgeon to operate or amputate the wrong organ/part of the body.
  • Superfluous treatment or surgeries: In some cases, complicated surgery techniques are opted for, despite the availability of conventional or easy treatments/techniques to treat the disease or condition. Although this may lead to the illness or ailment being cured, it may still be considered unwanted and more cost incurring while the patient can be treated without such an invasive procedure.
  • Anesthesia negligence: Negligence while administering and monitoring Anesthesia is hazardous to a patient’s life. If the anesthesiologist does not adequately review the patient’s medical history or the diagnosis, he/she may end up causing serious injury, or in some cases, the death of a patient.
  • Negligence during post-operative care leading to infections: The provider needs to ensure that post-operative care is completed in the hospital, or at home with supervision, or by regular follow-ups. Negligence in post-operative care may lead to infections or reoccurrence of a treated disease or condition.

Establishing Medical Malpractice

To determine malpractice in many states, four-elements must typically be met:

  1. A duty of care to the patient.
  2. A breach in the duty of care.
  3. Injury caused by the breach
  4. Resulting damages

Therefore, to prevail, a patient must establish fault on the part of the doctor, hospital, etc. If the malpractice is proven, a patient may recover, depending on what state the case is filed, general damages (such as for pain and suffering and lost earnings), special damages (such as for expenses and bills), and punitive damages, if the conduct or harm was intentional.

How Outsourcing Can Help Attorneys and Law Firms?

Law firms and attorneys can save a considerable amount of money and time by outsourcing to AcroDocz the retrieval, review and summarization of medical records. .

Acrodocz brings you an expert team, which includes medical professionals, to assist in the review of voluminous medical records to help law firms and attorneys identify the malpractice or identify and isolate evidence supporting the claim.

 

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