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Maria Calderon
Professor Bevill
ENGL1302.02
2 December 2016
Medical Malpractice
When it comes to receiving medical assistance, an individuals trust is turned to the
medical professionals expertise to know the relevant medical treatment under the circumstances.
The reason why, is because the medical professional has in depth knowledge of his or her field,
through hard studying and passing required exams. When a patient seeks medical care, most of
the time his or her main priority is being helped or cured as quickly as possible; or the patient to
return to do his or her daily activities and customs. Unfortunately, there will be times when
healthcare workers might make an unintentional human error, that could or will affect the patient
and the healthcare workers reputation. This might be due to having stressful days and overloads
of work that lead to improperly diagnosing the patient. According with the Medical Malpractice
Center, medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in America (25 Facts). This
gives America a bad image due to being known as a first world country with its advanced
technological medical innovations. Human error, overloads of work and practicing outside of the
recommended care lead to malpractice actions by the healthcare professional.
Malpractice is often misinterpreted, ignored and or unseen. Malpractice is defined as a
form of negligence due to a wrong or an unseen mistake in which a doctor is held liable for
failure to perform common practice [or standard care] (Spinner, 3). There are many fields were
malpractice takes place. However, the most commonly known and frequently committed
malpractice, is in the healthcare field. Though medical malpractice has been increasing due to

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medicine and disease complexities, it has been an issue throughout the years. In the medical field
hand washing is the most essential infection control skill. Back in the nineteenth century when
the medical profession was growing. General practitioners caused the mortality rate of mothers
dying after giving birth to rise. The reason is because practitioners were not washing their hands
thus infecting mothers with infectious pathogens (Powers). Thanks to Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis and
his introduction to the antiseptic technique- (destroying and inhibiting the growth of infectious
microorganisms)- (Powers). Childbirths became safe and clean. However, Semmelweis proposed
plan was ignored to stop mothers from dying. Doctors [did not wanted to believe they were the
cause of the deaths because] they were offended by the accusation that their filth was responsible
for [the] deadly disease (Powers). This is an example of a type of medical malpractice that
happened many years ago. The reason for being a malpractice was because the doctors should
have been aware of their insufficient knowledge in childbirth and infection control. Although
back then healthcare was still evolving, Semmelweis technique was and is not harmful, therefore
doctors should have applied this method as soon as it was introduced and not let their beliefs
blind their practice. Unfortunately, as much as lack of handwashing was a problem in the past, it
is as well of a problem today, with it being considered the biggest nosocomial-disease or
infection contracted in a medical setting especially in a hospital- malpractice according with
National Public Radio (Powers). By simply not washing hands, malpractice is taking place.
Human error is inevitable, and even the most well educated individual commits mistakes.
It is normal to commit a mistake. Mistakes are made as a form to inform what needs to be
improved and or fixed. Unfortunately, when it comes to making a mistake in the medical field it
can lead to serious consequences. Since the medical worker is dealing with a patients life,
mistakes can be irreversible. Errors, such as slips and lapses or mistakes can be made even if the

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healthcare provider is not in any type of stress and has practiced the appropriate care. If people
understood that doctors weren't divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish (Chilea
89). Even if human error happens to everyone, there are many patients that seek to win money by
false accusing healthcare providers. An average of 15,000 lawsuits are filed against health
providers on account of medical malpractices, but more than 80% are rejected due to lack of
sufficient evidence (Chilea 89). Healthcare workers do not study for nothing. However, the
amount of preparation should aid the healthcare professional to prevent any human error from
happening.
Excessive workload is a well-known pressure that healthcare providers must balance
every day. It is not new that medical professionals have overloads of work. Weather its day or
night, new patients are being admitted into hospitals frequently. According with the General
Accounting Office between 2000 and 2020, the United States population is expected to grow by
18 percent (31 million), but the over-65 population, with more health care needs, is expected to
grow by 54 percent (19 million) (Carayon). Because there are more patients than medical staff,
healthcare workers such as physicians and nurses spend less time diagnosing. In addition, patient
information and treatment might be confusing and thus casing malpractice. There are four
workload levels that contribute to malpractice: unit, job, patient and situation (Carayon). Each
unit has different numbers of staff. Because some units in the hospital are more used than the
others; such as in the ER and ICU (Carayon). Staff is often in need and thus leaving physicians
and nurses with many patients to care at once. In the job level, every healthcare worker is
specialized in his or her specialty. There are going to be more staff with the same specialty and
thus leaving a great amount of healthcare individuals more stressed than the rest, due to being the
only ones with his or her specialty (Carayon). A good example is there being more nurses than

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doctors. In patient level, ineffective communication leads to malpractice (Carayon). Medical
staff might not communicate adequately with one another and the patient might not have a good
communication with his or her medical provider (Carayon). In situation level, not all individuals
in the medical field deal with excessive workloads equally (Carayon). An ER doctors workload
is far greater than a chiropractors workload.
Going outside of the rules in healthcare can be harmful and even deadly to the patient.
Even though most malpractice cases of misdiagnosis, misdiagnosis and nosocomial infections
are most often occurred, surgery malpractice is less possible to occur but still inevitable. Surgery
is a complex and important procedure that is essential to help aid with emergency assistance or to
help improve a patients well-being and or life. Because surgeons have spent various years
studying and preparing to perform surgery. It is thought to believe that years of preparation
prevent a malpractice incident or accident to occur. An orthopedic surgeon, whom was
performing a spinal surgical operation, decided to place a screwdriver in the spine instead of a
titanium rod because there were no rods available (Chilea 87). Because the surgeon went outside
of the recommended procedure, the patient had to undergo various surgeries and later died of
associated complications (Chilea 87). Being a well experienced in his field the surgeon should
have considered the risks of a decision that was inadequate and wrong.
Malpractice, being around for many years cannot be prevented but it can be reduced.
Human error, overloads of work and following inadequate procedures will happen at least to
every healthcare worker. However, keeping in mind holistic medicine will help the provider not
only keep in mind the patient's physical needs but mental needs too.

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Works Cited
25 Medical Malpractice Facts. Medical Malpractice Center, Sep. 17, 2015. Accessed 26 Oct.
2016.
Carayon, Pascale and Ayse P. Gurses. Chapter 30 Nursing Workload and Patient SafetyA
Human Factors Engineering Perspective. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,
Apr. 2008.
Chilea, Dragos and Cristina M. KASSAI, The Most Interesting and Famous Medical
Malpractice Cases in History. Juridical Current, vol. 19, no. 1, 2016, pp. 84-90.
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%3d%3d#AN=114579059&db=a9h. Accessed 21 Oct. 2016.
Powers & Santola, LLP Attorneys At Law. Getting Medical Workers to Wash Hands Remains a
Challenge. Consultwebs.com: Law Firm Website Designers / Personal Injury Lawyer
Marketing, 2016. Accessed 26 Oct. 2016.
Spinner and Amanda E., Common Ignorance: Medical Malpractice Law and the Misconceived
Application of the Common Knowledge and Res Ipsa Loquitur Doctrines. Touro
Law Review, vol. 31, no 3, 2015, pp. 521-554. MasterFILE Premiere, /ehost/detail/detail?
vid=12&sid=32240389-8094-41ec-aebbb1383fadd216%40sessionmgr4008&hid=4212&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#AN=110470704&db=lgh. Accessed 21 Oct. 2016.