Negligence In Health Care Case Study

Improved Essays
Negligence in Emergency Departments: Who’s to Blame?
Introduction
Health care in the United States is a thriving industry that is exponentially growing, with expenses consuming approximately 17.4% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Martin et. al, 2016). In fact, health care related expenses reached $3 trillion in 2014, and an estimated $55.6 billion of that $3 trillion was spent solely on medical liability expenditures (Mello et. al, 2014). Recently published studies have shown that one of the major contributing factors influencing the gross range of medical liability expenses is negligence in the healthcare setting (Mello et. al, 2014). The term “negligence” covers a vast array of clinical malpractices that adversely affect the
…show more content…
In this case, Pravat Mukherjee, who was involved in a motorcycle accident, was taken to Ruby General Hospital for his severe condition. His insurance policy at the time covered Rs. 65,000 of hospital expenses. After the hospital began treatment, they demanded that he pay Rs. 15,000 upfront for continued treatment. At this time the hospital took Mr. Mukherjee off treatment and he later expired. Although this case was outside of the healthcare system in the United States, it shows how negligence and refusal of care was at direct fault of the hospital (Pandit and Pandit, 2009). Not only does this case point out the negligent action of the hospital staff, it also touches upon the ethical issues revolving their choice of treating a critical …show more content…
Defensive medicine has become one of the more dominant resolutions, but is not realistic in an emergency medicine setting (Hermer and Brody, 2010). Defensive medicine entails adding on tests, treatments, and procedures for the sole purpose of reducing criticism and risk associated with missing a life threatening diagnosis (Summerton, 1995). This solution may be beneficial in private and primary care settings as physicians have more time with patients as compared to the Emergency Department setting.
Emergency Departments across the country are already known to be understaffed, which inevitably reduces the amount of time spent interacting with individual patients (Dickinson, 1989). In addition to the time associated with defensive medicine, many physicians believe that implementing defensive medicine in Emergency Departments also drives up health care costs (McQuade, 1991). The negative impacts of defensive medicine also increase incidences of overprescribing, requiring frequent follow up visits and additional diagnostic testing. So what could be the ideal and realistic solution to avoiding negligence in Emergency Departments? Health care costs are inevitable, and as a result, many researchers are pointing to adding more physicians into Emergency Departments to compensate for negligence, rather than the use of defensive medicine (Summerton, 1995).

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Dorrough V. Wilkes (2002)

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages

    NUR 714 Legal Case Study Analysis Paper Dorrough v. Wilkes (2002) No 2001-CA-00117-SCT Jonathan R. Heshler California University of Pennsylvania NUR 714 Legal Case Study Analysis The purpose of this paper is to analyze and review the case of Dorrough v. Wilkes (2002). This civil case involved a female patient (Gwendolyn Wilkes) presenting to the emergency room at Boliver County Hospital, being misdiagnosed and discharged by Dr. Dorrough, dying the next day at another hospital after emergency surgery and the patients husband and son bringing a wrongful death medical malpractice action suit forth.…

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Front Street Hospital: Uninsured Charges and Collections (pg. 237 of Cases in Healthcare Finance, 5th edition) It is quite clear from the text’s exposition on the policy, billing, and collection habits of certain not-for-profit hospitals that serious injustices were being committed against uninsured patients. These injustices were primarily financial in nature – although physical and psychological trauma almost always followed – and they reveal the systematic nature of the abuse. By setting “rack rates” – an extremely expensive set rate for medical procedures – as the ‘standard fare’ for all patients, while simultaneously granting clear and enormous discounts for those insured through third-party entities, the not-for-profit hospitals unconscionably…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    When people undergo medical procedures, they put their lives in someone else’s hands. Though everyone deserves the highest standard of care, medical negligence is a very real problem around the country. If you sustained new or worse injuries because of a healthcare professional’s negligence, Cronin Fried Sekiya Kekina & Fairbanks in Honolulu, HI, will help. At Cronin Fried Sekiya Kekina & Fairbanks, they help clients pursue justice from doctors and hospitals for gross negligence and misconduct.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Orr V. Bell Case Summary

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Exceptional care and professional responsibility is a standard form of practice the general public rely upon for their health care needs. But, what happens when codes of conduct, rules and codes of ethics are violated and physicians fail to provide adequate care and diagnostics? When circumstance like this arise, who becomes responsible for the negligence on behalf of the patient? In the case of Orr vs. Bell, due to the negligence on behalf of Dr. Bell, the patient Orr went misdiagnosed and eventually became paralyzed. The review of this case will document and prove due to Dr. Bell’s failure to follow nationally recognized Radiologic ethics and rules Dr. Bell failed to determine Orr’s medical issue and therefore was responsible for the outcome…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sometimes malpractice lawsuits are well warranted, however, sometimes they do not have legal merit. The conclusion of the article best summarizes the author’s advice to physicians faced with frivolous malpractice lawsuits when he states, “Doctors should hold the legal profession accountable when attorneys overstep. Give them a taste of their own medicine, and ask for damages. The number of frivolous cases has declined significantly since various tort reform measures have been enacted. If physicians are lucky, outrageous cases will be dismissed before too much expense is incurred.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Human Tech Yell Analysis

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game?…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This case study considers the ethical implications of the actions of nurses, that cased several near miss medical events and one medical mistake that could have been fatal. It addresses the actual issue raised by the case and how the issues are of ethical concern based on the principles of medical ethics and professional code of ethics. It reveals how various medical code of ethics guides the healthcare administrator response to the ethical issue. Case Study: We’ve Got You Covered…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medical Malpractice Theory

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages

    For example, in Wright's study, they found that for every 100 patients, there is one patient that files a claim when they suffer from medical malpractice (Wright, 2011). A similar study conducted by The California Medical Association found even better results as one in every 125 patients suffer from medical malpractice (Wright, 2011). This is impressive as the law profession receives upwards to six claims of negligence per a 100 clients (Kritzer & Vidmar, 2015). The problem here and why these researches are relevant to this study's research question is that despite the low number of medical malpractice claims, there is actually a large amount of medical malpractice that exists; a notion supported by 30 years’ worth of empirical research (Kritzer & Vidmar, 2015). A potential cause for these low claims is that it is hard to establish medical negligence as the claimant would need to prove before the judges, causation beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard of proof in law (Hartwell, 2005).…

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Three Strikes Law

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lesson 4 Essay Medical Malpractice can be defined as the negligent or irresponsible medical treatment of a doctor, nurse or other medical practitioner that results in injury or death of a patient in their care (McMillen Law Firm, 2013). One of the unique qualities about Florida is its exercise of the ‘Three Strikes Law’. The relatively recent amendment to the Florida Constitution would automatically revoke the medical license of any doctor hit with three malpractice judgments which makes Florida one of the most hostile states for physicians. In my opinion, when it comes to protecting patients and physicians alike, there should be limitations set in place for each party.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Crocker V. Roethling

    • 109 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In a medical negligence cases, the plaintiff needs to prove that “the care of the health care provider was not in accord with the standards of practice amongst members of the same health care profession with related training and experience in similar communities at the time of the purported act giving rise to the cause of action. One of the vital elements of a claim in medical negligence is that the defendant did breach the applicable standards of medical care owed to the plaintiff. The Plaintiffs must establish the appropriate standard of care through expert testimony as seen in the case of Crocker v. Roethling, 363 N.C. 140…

    • 109 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hospital Are Never Events

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In continuation of risk factors, the employees’ failure to report a spill caused an occurrence of a Never Event, resulting in the fall of a patient whilst in a hospital setting. The strong litigation language of never events could result in the application of a strict liability standard […] medical liability, costs the nation between $76 billion and $102 billion per year in defensive medicine. For example, consider the case of a patient who falls […] total hip replacement. Under CMS guidelines, falls in a hospital are never events, because CMS believes that they should be preventable with due diligence. (Garrison LF and Labban AJ., 2008).…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Medical Necessity Analysis

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Another interesting article on this subject was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in which the authors suggest that the burden of proving should be on the insurer rather than the physician and that the insurer should be able to provide evidence that the care was against the generally accepted guidelines. (Rosenbaum,…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the U.S., the third leading cause of death is not a topic the general public knows and talks about: medical mistakes. According to the Journal of Patient Safety, between 210,000 and 440,000 patients suffer some type of harm. The medical system should change so there are more people double-checking every detail, the hours of doctors shifts are reduced and the topic of medical malpractice is openly discussed. In life or death situations, every small detail needs to be checked and double checked to reduce the likelihood of error. There are far too many examples where negligence by any of the medical staff has led to a patient suffering the consequences.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Medical Malpractice Case

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Two nurses who worked at Phoenixville Hospital were being suing negligence which caused a baby to be born with brain damage. Medical Malpractice Case The case of Lily Ciechoski People today are suing healthcare professionals has become all too common.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This paper will discuss liability and negligence in the healthcare field as well as negligence issue in the healthcare field. Liability is defined as a potential for a lawsuit (Dunn 114). Liability can be found just about anywhere and is a concerning area in today’s age. Healthcare workers are very familiar to this word and been familiarized throughout their careers with this word. I can’t be a scary thing to think about in this field the potential to be sued from an employee level all the way to a corporate level.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays