negligence vs. malpractice??

leslie :-D · Mar 24, 2008

negligence is the omission of an action, resulting in an undesirable outcome.

malpractice is a direct action that creates an undesirable outcome.

leslie

Columnist · Mar 24, 2008

Negligence is a failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would act under similar circumstances.

There are 4 elements of negligence that must be proved in order for there to be a viable medical malpractice claim.

1. A duty must be owed to the person. In a medical case, this duty occurs when the health care provider accepts responsibility for the care and treatment of that patient.

2. A breach of duty or standard of care occurred. The standard of care for that type of specialty and that particular type of treatment must be determined to see if there has been an act of omission or commission that has caused damage to the patient.

3. Proximate cause - An act or omission can be shown to be a substantial factor in bringing about or failing to prevent an injury or loss.

4. Damages or injuries occur.

elkpark · Mar 24, 2008

Negligence is a failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would act under similar circumstances.
There are 4 elements of negligence that must be proved in order for there to be a viable medical malpractice claim.
1. A duty must be owed to the person. In a medical case, this duty occurs when the health care provider accepts responsibility for the care and treatment of that patient.
2. A breach of duty or standard of care occurred. The standard of care for that type of specialty and that particular type of treatment must be determined to see if there has been an act of omission or commission that has caused damage to the patient.
3. Proximate cause - An act or omission can be shown to be a substantial factor in bringing about or failing to prevent an injury or loss.
4. Damages or injuries occur.

Yes -- the explanation I've always heard (and used) is that malpractice is professional negligence. Anyone can be guilty of negligence (e.g., a homeowner who doesn't repair front porch steps, a visitor falls through the steps and is injured), but you have to have a license to be guilty of malpractice.

justme1972 · Mar 24, 2008

To me, this has always been a clear cut distinction that requires one to remember one simple fact:

A healthcare professional...be them a physician, nurse, etc. is NOT God.

To me, if a physician makes a mistake, especially one where a split-second decision needed to be made and there was no time to consult someone...if it takes an entire team of physicans to review the file for weeks or months to figure out whether or not it was a mistake...then that is more time than that physician had.

To me, negligence is where they HAD the knowledge or severely deviated from known procedure or protocols without a good medical reason to do so....and really messed someone up.

TiredMD · Mar 25, 2008

A healthcare professional...be them a physician, nurse, etc. is NOT God.

That's just because I haven't finished residency yet.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2008

Malpractice is a manifestation of negligence in one's professional (licensed) capacity. It is measured by a lack of adherence to standards of practice resulting in damages.

Keysnurse2008 · Feb 18, 2009

Negligence is failure to act/ report......an example is your pt's blood pressure keeps dropping from 130/ 70 to now 76/42 as the pt keeps vomiting. You decide to wait an hour to contact the MD and then there is little time to intervene before cardiac or respiratory collapse. That is pure negligence and total deviation from what a prudent nurse would do.

Malpractice - an example would be applying a cooling blanket or heating pad directly to the skin with no barrier and then the patient ends up with blisters that further breaks down into a bedsore. Your actions resulted in injury.

anakat_evangelista, RN · Feb 19, 2009

thank you for posting this. i was having trouble differentiating these two terms.

am i correct in thinking that malpractice is under negligence? because as stated here, malpractice is professional negligence.

Keysnurse2008 · Feb 19, 2009

thank you for posting this. i was having trouble differentiating these two terms.

am i correct in thinking that malpractice is under negligence? because as stated here, malpractice is professional negligence.

no ...professional negligence falls under malpractice. when you are caring for a patient and you fail to act that is negligence and it falls under the overall scope of malpractice. think of malpractice as the title of your essay paper. a supporting paragraph might be negligence....it might be battery...it might be willful endangerment. that is the way i look at. malpractice is the overall broad title. but ...the bottom line is...when you are caring for patients.....you place their safety first. when you have deviations from their norm you notify a physician immediately. when you elect to not notify a md and harm comes to the patient you are guilty of malpractice specifically negligence by failing to act. does this help?

MsDJ007 · Sep 13, 2010

Neglience committed by a professional is malpractice, but not all malpratice is negligence.

LOYAL907 · Nov 2, 2010

thanks yallll

this is really helpful and more examples will be the best to have

thanks again :)