Why Does Medical Malpractice Occur?

Health-care is a demanding profession that presents doctors with difficult and often complex challenges. Many times the health of a patient will inevitably decline no matter what the doctors do. But other times, the health-care providers truly are at fault. They were negligent, ill-prepared, or lazy. When serious injury or death occurs at the fault of the doctor, it is the legal right of the victim to seek legal action. Doctors should not be treated any differently than others when they make mistakes. Here are a few reasons why medical malpractice may occur:   Physical error during procedure or complacency of a doctor can cause medical malpractice. Oftentimes, the thinking of the doctor is more likely to lead to a mistake than the difficulty of a certain procedure. Many health-care providers can easily switch to “autopilot” mode during a procedure after performing it dozens or even hundreds of times. It’s important for doctors to be 100 percent mentally present in all procedures and appointments to avoid unnecessary and possibly damaging errors.   Another factor that can lead to medical malpractice is poor assessment of tests and information. Sometimes abnormal test results are misinterpreted or overlooked by health-care providers. On the other hand, sometimes focusing in too much on one test result or symptom and failing to see the “big picture” can lead to mistakes.   Sometimes medical malpractice is not the fault of an individual doctor, but of the health-care system. Hospital systems and health-insurance companies affect the quality of health-care. Hospitals that fail to properly or adequately train their nursing and assistant staff can set themselves up for many problems. Equipment that is poor, outdated, not sanitized or ill-maintained can also cause problems.