By definition, any case of medical malpractice involves a bad medical outcome. But not every bad outcome in medicine means that medical malpractice was involved. If you have received medical treatment and things didn’t go the way you expected (or hoped), it’s essential to understand the difference.
When bad things happen, it’s natural to want to find somewhere to put the blame. And when someone is injured by negligent medical care, it’s important to hold the party responsible accountable, including through medical malpractice claims. Not only does a successful claim help the person who was injured, it helps protect future patients by creating consequences for negligence.
But as badly as we might want to make someone pay when things go wrong, it’s also necessary to ensure that consequences are appropriate. Just as a claim ought to be filed when there’s reason to believe a provider committed malpractice, it serves no one to file a claim that doesn’t have merit.
A bad medical outcome is, in general, a result from a treatment or procedure that didn’t have the desired effect or had an undesirable adverse effect. Some examples are back surgery to relieve pain that isn’t successful; post-surgical infections or bleeding; chronic conditions like diabetes that worsen over time; or chemotherapy that fails to stop a tumor from growing. And yes, an unanticipated death definitely falls under the heading of a “bad outcome.”
These things can happen because medicine isn’t perfect, or because of the patient’s underlying health conditions, or for reasons that are unclear but not attributable to anyone’s fault. (The fact that bad outcomes can happen without fault is part of why patients must provide “informed consent” to medical care. Informed consent shows that they understand and agree to not only the potential benefits, but risks, of a proposed treatment.)
Here’s the hard part: all of the situations above, plus many more, can also be caused by medical malpractice. For example, chemotherapy might be ineffective because a doctor prescribed the wrong drug or dosage for the type of cancer the patient had.
Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious when a bad outcome is—or isn’t—medical malpractice. An unexpected negative medical outcome may suggest malpractice, but more is needed to prove it. In essence, there are certain “hoops” a claimant must go through to prove malpractice, otherwise known as the elements of the case.
In order for there to be medical malpractice, there must be a “duty of care” between a provider and a patient. The duty of care requires a healthcare provider to act as a reasonable provider in a similar situation would act in treating a patient. The existence of a treatment relationship creates a duty of care, so this is usually the easiest element to prove.
If an elderly woman came into the Emergency Department complaining of hip pain and inability to bear weight on her leg after a fall, the doctor and nurses assigned to her owe her a duty of care, as does the hospital itself.
The second element of a medical malpractice claim is a breach of the duty of care. In other words, the person making the claim must show that the doctor or healthcare provider did not act as a reasonable provider would have.
In the scenario described above, a doctor who failed to order an X-ray of the patient’s hip and leg before discharging her would almost certainly be breaching the duty of care.
In a medical malpractice case, the third element is an injury to the patient caused by the healthcare provider’s breach of duty.
In our example, the doctor didn’t cause the initial hip injury. However, their failure to take steps to diagnose and treat the broken hip may have caused the patient unnecessary pain and a protracted recovery—or perhaps denied her the opportunity to make a full recovery.
The final element of a medical malpractice claim is damages. In other words, what are the costs to the patient as a result of the injury the healthcare provider caused? Damages can be economic, like lost wages or additional medical bills incurred due to the injury, or noneconomic, like damages for pain and suffering.
In the case of our elderly woman, damages might include medical expenses for surgery made necessary by the delayed diagnosis, the cost of a stay in a rehabilitation facility, mobility aids, and pain and suffering.
It can be particularly challenging to prove causation in medical malpractice cases because in most cases, the patient had health issues to begin with. Similarly, it can be difficult to show that damages are attributable to an injury from a professional’s negligence, rather than the original issue that was being treated.
The differences between medical malpractice and a bad outcome not caused by negligence are often subtle. That doesn’t mean that you should assume your injury was not medical malpractice. If you even suspect medical malpractice, you have only a limited window in which to file a claim.
Your best move is to consult with a medical malpractice attorney. There is no cost for a consultation, and an experienced attorney can help you decide whether further investigation is warranted. If you do have a viable claim, there is no attorney fee unless and until your attorney recovers an award for you. To learn more about the difference between medical malpractice and bad outcomes, or to evaluate whether you have a claim worth pursuing, contact the Fraser Law Firm to schedule a consultation.
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