By definition, the four elements of medical malpractice must be present for a claim to be considered medical malpractice. At its core, medical malpractice is a cause for legal action resulting from a medical professional or healthcare provider causing harm, injury, or death to someone in their care—either through neglect, omission, or some other deviation from their stated duties.
A person might claim medical malpractice if mistakes were made in the diagnosis, treatment, aftercare, or health management processes, especially if negligence caused these errors.
For a medical malpractice claim to be judged legitimate, the plaintiff must establish the four elements of medical malpractice listed below.
1. Professional Duty Owed to the Patient or Dependent
Before an injured patient can claim medical malpractice against a healthcare professional, it must be established that the provider is responsible for the patient’s care and treatment.
If the medical care provider in question had no responsibility to care and provide for the patient or dependent, the claim would almost definitely be deemed invalid. The doctor-patient dynamic establishes an unspoken agreement: the doctor has a responsibility to help return the patient to health, administer treatment, and ensure their future well-being to the best of their abilities.
2. Failure to Live Up to Sworn Medical Duties
After the plaintiff proves the healthcare provider was responsible for the patient, they must then establish that the defendant failed to do everything required and, therefore, performed a breach of duty.
Various types of breach of duty include:
- Prescribing a patient incorrect medication,
- Failing to review a patient’s current medications,
- Prescribing the wrong dose of medicine,
- Administering incorrect drugs,
- Failing to analyze or diagnose a health condition accurately,
- Failing to diagnose a health condition entirely,
- Ignoring or misreading laboratory results,
- Failure to order adequate tests,
- Prematurely discharging a patient from care,
- Failing to warn a patient of known risks of surgery, procedure, or treatment, and
- Making a severe mistake during surgery, such as performing surgery on the wrong part of the patient’s body or carelessly leaving foreign objects/surgical tools inside the body.
A breach of duty is simply a doctor’s or healthcare provider’s failure to react to or act accordingly to a patient’s ailment(s). This step usually trips up the healthcare provider because if they miss even a tiny detail, it might be held against them.
3. Proof of Damage or Harm to the Patient
When it comes to medical malpractice cases, the patient who has been injured is to receive compensation for being harmed. The harm to the plaintiff can be either emotional or physical. It must be evident and traceable to a fault in the provider’s actions. Let’s examine the last of the four elements of medical malpractice.
4. Proof of Fault
Lastly, the injured party must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the incident could have been avoided if the medical professional had acted differently or reacted better.
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Fifth Avenue Agency specializes in MPLI and medical malpractice insurance, serving thousands of providers nationwide. It is part of the Fifth Avenue Healthcare Services family. Sister companies include 5ACVO (credentialing and primary source verification specialists) and Primoris Credentialing Network (credentialing and provider enrollment specialists with 54+ health plan and network provider enrollment options).
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