Liability
legally responsible or obligated
What are the three things physicians have general liability for?
The practice's building and grounds, Automobiles, and Employee safety.
Standard of Care
The level of performance expected of a health care practitioner in carrying out his or her professional duties.
Duty of Care
The legal obligation of health care workers to patients and, sometimes, nonpatients.
Reasonable person standard
That standard of behavior that judges a person's actions in a situation according to what a reasonable person would or would not do under similar circumstances.
Confidentiality
The act of holding information in confidence, not to be released to unauthorized individuals.
Privileged communication
information held confidential within a protected relationship. (Attorney-Client) (Physician-Patient)
What is the most common liability in medicine?
Negligence
Feasance
The performance of an act
malfeasance
The performance of a totally wrongful and unlawful act
Misfeasance
The performance of a lawful act in an illegal or improper manner
Nonfeasance
The failure to act when one should
The four Ds of negligence
Duty, Dereliction, Direct Cause, and Damages
Duty
The person charged with negligence owed a duty of care to the accuser
Dereliction
The health care provider breached the duty of care to the patient
Direct cause
The breach of the duty of care to the patient was a direct cause of the patient's injury
Damages
There is a legally recognizable injury to the patient
The burden of proof is always on the
Plaintiff
Res ipsa loquitur is latin for
the thing speaks for itself" it is also known as the doctrine of common knowledge
Res ipsa loquitur
A situation that is so obviously negligent that no expert witness need to be called
Damage awards
Monetary awards sought by plaintiffs inlawsuits
General Compensatory
To compensate for injuries or losses due to violation of patient rights
Special Compensatory
To compensate for losses not directly caused by the wrong
Consequential
To compensate for losses caused indirectly by a product defect
Punitive
To punish the offender
Nominal
To recognize that rights of the patient were violated, though no actual loss was proved
Wrongful death statutes
State statutes that allow a person's beneficiaries to collect for loss to the estate of the deceased for future earnings when a death is judged to have been due to negligence
Four phases of a lawsuit
Pleading phase, Interrogatory or Pretrial Discovery Phase, Trial Phase, and Appeals phase
Summons
Issued by the clerk of the court and is delivered with a copy of the complaint to the defendant, directing him or her to respond to the charges (Pleading Phase)
subpoena
A legal document requiring the recipient to appear as a witness in court or to give a deposition (Pretrial Phase)
deposition
Sworn testimony given and recorded outside the courtroom during the pretrial phase of a case
Interrogatory
A written set of questions requiring written answers from a plaintiff or defendant under oath
Subpoena duces tecum
The subpoena commanding a witness to appear in court and to bring certain medical records
Two types of depositions
Discovery depositions, and depositions in lieu of trial
Discovery depositions
cover material that will most likely be examined again when the witness testifies in court
Depositions in lieu of trial
are used instead of the witness's in-person testimony in court
Testimony
Statements sworn to under oath by witnesses testifying in court and giving depositions
2 kinds of testimony
Fact and Expert
Fact testimony
this type of testimony concerns only those facts the witness has observed
Expert testimony
Only experts in a particular field have the education, skills, knowledge, and experience to give expert testimony
Alternative Dispute Resolution
also know as appropriate dispute resolution, consists of techniques for resolving civil disputes without going to court
Mediation
is an ADR method in which a neutral third party listens to both sides of the argument and then helps resolve the dispute
Arbitration
is a method of settling disputes in which the opposing parties agree by the decision of an arbitrator
med-arb
the mediator resolves the dispute if the two parties are unable to reach agreement after mediation