Medical malpractice happens for numerous different reasons. In some cases, doctors just make negligent mistakes. They could also make an incorrect diagnosis or miss a diagnosis that they should’ve made. Many different types of medical malpractice can cause serious harm to the patient.
It can be helpful, however, to look at some of the root causes and the reasons why these adverse events take place. When you do this, you see that communication errors are at the heart of many medical malpractice cases. Patient harm can often be directly traced to poor communication tactics at some level.
How this could cause a problem
For one thing, miscommunication can be an issue when it comes to follow-up care. It could be that no one knows who is in charge of providing that care to a patient, or that the person who is taking over doesn’t understand what will be required or what complications may arise.
Miscommunication can also cause problems when it comes to the medications being given out. A patient could be given the wrong dose or the wrong medication entirely. In some cases, the mistake could cause medications to be switched between two patients so that they both come to harm.
Finally, communication errors with patients could lead to a scenario where the patient doesn’t feel they provided informed consent. Maybe they didn’t understand what they were consenting to or they were never asked for their consent at all. This can lead to a lawsuit even when part of the medical team believed that consent was given and it was really just a communication error.
Seeking compensation
When patients are harmed in a medical setting, they may be able to seek compensation for lost wages, medical bills, prescription costs and much more. They need to know exactly what legal steps to take.
