What is the definition of medical malpractice?

The definition of medical malpractice, in short, is an act of medical negligence that results in undue injury to a patient. Medical negligence comes in a wide variety of forms that range from misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, surgical errors, failure to follow up with treatment, acquired infections or failure to monitor patient vital signs.

In order to have a valid medical malpractice case, there are typically four fundamental elements that must be present. They are 1. duty, 2. medical negligence, 3. patient injury and 4. causation.

1. Duty

Duty is a legal element that establishes a requirement between a doctor, nurse or other medical professional and their patient to treat said patient to the accepted medical standard of care.

2. Medical Negligence

Medical negligence is a medical professionals deviation from the accepted medical standard of care. For example, if a 50 year old male patient comes into a hospital with complaints of chest pains, there are standards of care that would require the doctor to look into the symptoms further in order to rule out potential heart disease and heart attack.

These standards have been developed over hundreds of years of medical study to give doctors "guidelines" on how best to treat patients with certain symptoms in order to maximize patient mortality and recovery.

If a doctor or other medical professional does not adhere to these standards, then he or she is said to be negligent.

3. Patient Injury

Undue injury is a requisite of a meritorious medical malpractice claim. Medical malpractice is a form of civil tort, and all tort claims require some form of damages for which to seek compensation or other legal remedy.

4. Causation

The fourth part of building a good medical malpractice case is showing how the medical negligence caused undue injury to the patient. For example, if a doctor fails to order further testing for a man complaining of chest pains, then that man goes home and has a heart attack, it must be shown that the doctors negligence in failing to diagnose heart disease lead to his heart attack.

Of course, in reality, medical malpractice cases are very complex. The laws are fairly straight forward, but proving all the element in practice is very difficult. It is important for anyone considering a medical malpractice lawsuit to talk to an experienced medical malpractice attorney to evaluate the case and get real legal advice and options.

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