Medical Malpractice

Practice Areas

Overview

Did you know that after heart disease and cancer, medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.? In fact, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, over 225,000 people die each year due to medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice is “an act or omission by a health care provider which deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community and which causes injury to (or death of) the patient.”

Because this definition covers such a large scope – from maltreatment to lack of treatment to neglect – various types of medical malpractice claims exist, and each case must be carefully examined by medical experts.

Florida Law

In Florida, the law requires two factors to be present for medical malpractice: 1) proof that a healthcare professional failed to exercise a duty of care, and 2) proof that the professional’s failure was the proximate cause of the injury (or injuries) in question.

The most common cases of malpractice include:

Anesthesia errors
Prenatal diagnostic testing errors
Lack of informed consent
Failure to attend to a patient
Failure to advice patient of available treatment
Continuing an ineffective treatment
Surgery errors
Cancer misdiagnosis
Medication errors
Below standard or improperly formed treatment
Nursing home abuse
Dental malpractice

Medical Malpractice Factoids

Over 100,000 deaths due to emergency room errors
106,000 die yearly from non-error, adverse effects of medication
80,000 die yearly from infections in hospitals
20,000 die yearly from other errors in hospitals
12,000 die yearly from unnecessary surgery
7,000 die yearly from hospital medication errors
Medical malpractice insurance rates up 52%
6 of 10 physicians 55 and older have had lawsuits filed against them