Scenario
Andrea, an LPN at Dr. MacWhinnie’s private clinic, was asked to administer medication while the physician was busy. The doctor failed to complete informed consent and mistakenly reviewed the wrong patient file, resulting in Ms. Clarke receiving the incorrect medication, which caused severe complications, including a stroke.
Characteristics of Negligence
First of all, it should be noted that Dr. MacWhinnie acted incompetently by failing to leave the necessary instructions for the nurse to administer the medication. In addition, she neglected to take informed consent, which would have confirmed that Ms. Clark was familiar with the medications she was given (Bazzano et al., 2021). It may also be considered negligent that Dr. MacWhinnie failed to check the medications dispensed and their consistency with the patient’s chart.
Moreover, the chart he used was incorrect, which is further evidence of negligence. Regarding the nurse’s role in causing the negligence, it can be identified that she did not verify the correspondence between the doctor’s instructions and the prescription (Strini et al., 2021). This means that she should have verified to whom the prescription was written and what medications it contained.
Informed Consent
Informed consent is a unique document provided by the party providing medical services. The consent document contains information about how the treatment will be provided, the procedures planned, and the extent to which they will be implemented (Pietrzykowski & Smilowska, 2021). Additionally, the consent document contains information about the parties contracting to provide medical services (Dahlawi et al., 2021). The patient’s personal information and details about the prescribed recommendations are critical because they thoroughly notify the patient of the planned interventions. Consent ensures that the service will be performed and that the patient is aware of and consents to the interventions, having rationally weighed the risks.
For Ms. Clark, filling out informed consent was vital because it provides information about exactly when and how the service is performed, as well as how to prepare for it. Consent for the dispensed medications would inform her whether she was receiving the proper treatment or if a mistake had occurred (Pietrzykowski & Smilowska, 2021). In the doctor’s case, consent guarantees that the patient is judiciously assessing the situation and is prepared for its various consequences (Bazzano et al., 2021). Lack of consent is tantamount to an unwanted intervention, which carries risks for the doctor in the event of injury or death of the patient.
Arguments
Ms. Clark’s first concern should be the conditions under which she received her prescription medication. She may have observed that she was not provided with complete services and with insufficient attention to the specifics of her illness, resulting in pronounced complications. Second, Ms. Clark must prove that she did not give informed consent and was not notified of the medications prescribed for her diagnosed condition. The lack of informed consent and documentation of her request for medication is sufficient grounds for a negligence claim.
The essential basis for a negligence claim is that Ms. Clark became ill after taking the wrong medication. She was convinced that she was taking the necessary medications, but in reality, they worsened her illness. Severe complications such as a stroke and severe left-sided impairment lead to a greatly diminished quality of life. In most cases, complications resulting from a physician’s improper professional conduct are sufficient grounds for a malpractice lawsuit. In Ms. Clark’s case, she needs to file a claim and attach information about the complications she experienced, along with a medical report confirming the new diagnosis as evidence.
Steps
For Ms. Clark to prove negligence, she must go through several significant elements. First, she needs to provide an opinion that Dr. MacWhinnie had a duty to provide her with qualified care. This is a simple enough step because before the clinic writes a prescription, it has data on who and what was prescribed.
Then, Ms. Clark must provide data on the breach. Specifically, she attaches her medical report and necessary medications to the claim and compares them to what she received from Dr. MacWhinnie (Bazzano et al., 2021). Ms. Clark should also point out that Dr. MacWhinnie could have prevented the situation if she had taken more time to reconcile the report and the prescriptions issued (Dahlawi et al., 2021). The new diagnosis (stroke) report is the final step in filing a lawsuit – it is a guarantee that it was negligence that caused the injury.
Avoiding the Lawsuit
Although there is clear evidence of negligence in Dr. MacWhinnie’s actions, she may be able to defend herself against the lawsuit. Because the error involved insufficient attention to the patient, the doctor should reconsider her work schedule and improve her time management (Miziara, I., & Miziara, C., 2022). This will enable her to avoid future issues by thoroughly analyzing the patient’s charts and writing accurate prescriptions.
Since Dr. MacWhinnie reviewed the incorrect document, it is likely necessary to establish a second line of control, such as a nurse (Miziara, I., & Miziara, C., 2022). Since the nurse follows the physician’s instructions, she can also pay closer attention when preparing medications (Strini et al., 2021). In particular, Dr. MacWhinnie could have recognized that the nurse had prepared the wrong medication, i.e., had not verified the consistency between the prescription and the patient’s chart. This is Dr. MacWhinnie’s only line of defense if Ms. Clark files a malpractice suit.
References
Bazzano, L. A., Durant, J., & Brantley, P. R. (2021). A modern history of informed consent and the role of key information. The Ochsner Journal, 21(1), 81–85.
Dahlawi, S., Menezes, R. G., Khan, M. A., Waris, A., Saifullah, & Naseer, M. M. (2021). Medical negligence in healthcare organizations and its impact on patient safety and public health: A bibliometric study. F1000Research, 10(174).
Miziara, I. D., & Miziara, C. S. M. G. (2022). Medical errors, medical negligence and defensive medicine: A narrative review. Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 77(100053).
Pietrzykowski, T., & Smilowska, K. (2021). The reality of informed consent: Empirical studies on patient comprehension-systematic review. Trials, 22(1), 57.
Strini, V., Schiavolin, R., & Prendin, A. (2021). The role of the nurse in informed consent to treatments: An observational-descriptive study in the Padua hospital. Clinical Practice, 11, 472-483.