Describe actions to prevent lawsuits and appropriate steps to do when sued?
Clinical practice is associated with some inherent risks of medical injuries. For instance, as Sohn (2013) states, invasive surgical procedures induce up to 4 percent risk of infection. However, some of the cases of harm to patients are either due to negligence or system errors, whereas the former factor causes merely 27 percent of all adverse events (Sohn, 2013). Negligence can be defined as a failure to comply with standards of care, while system errors can be regarded as unintentional human errors, which occur naturally and are supported by deficiencies in the system. In either way, a patient may sue a practitioner/hospital when injured.
When an adverse event takes place, practitioners may use such dispute resolution methods as early apology, mediation, and arbitration. The first method implies an expression of sincere sympathy, and it helps preserve patient-practitioner relationships. Mediation refers to negotiations conducted by an impartial mediator. Compared to arbitration, it is a non-binding practice, while arbitration implies the hearing of both parties’ claims by an arbiter who then makes a final decision, which both plaintiff and defendant are bound to follow. As stated by Sohn (2013) mediation is most cost-efficient and effective method as it allows increasing the satisfaction of both parties.
It is worth noticing that “many patients sue when there is injury, failing to understand the fundamental differences between an adverse event and a medical error, or the difference between system errors and true negligence” (Sohn, 2013, p. 51). As a result, patients and hospitals lose a lot of time and financial resources for fruitless litigations. Therefore, it is essential for healthcare practitioners to insist on the implementation of alternative dispute resolution methods before a plaintiff sues. However, in case a lawsuit is filed, and if negligence or system error were proved to be the cause of medical injury, hospitals must aim to compensate the patient and discourage harmful practices.
Describe the term standard of care and how a practicing clinician can keep us with the standard of care
Compliance with high standards of nursing care is one of the major ways to reduce negligence. Additionally, improvements in the hospital system and structure can support the prevention of human errors. Overall, the term standard of care may be defined as the provision of services according to the level of expertise and training accepted in a particular field of practice and a certain community (Keeley, Wolf, Regul, & Jadwin, 2015). Overall, the compliance with standards of care can be regarded as the performance of basic professional duties, namely, the promotion of health benefits for patients and the avoidance of harm.
According to Raveesh, Nayak, and Kumbar (2016), the actions to prevent negligence/human errors and consequent lawsuits can be as follows: avoidance of prescribing and diagnosis errors, improvement of follow-up strategies, proper identification of complications, effective communication, etc. For instance, the first action refers to the ability to retrieve all relevant information from a patient, e.g., medications he/she is taking, and symptoms he/she has (Raveesh et al., 2016). It is possible to say that the provision of high-quality care will largely depend on clinicians’ determination to meet all such professional standards and evidence-based recommendations. At the same time, Gorgich, Barfroshan, Ghoreishi, and Yaghoobi (2016) observe that prevalent causes of medical errors in nurses include “staff deficiency, fatigue due to high workload and high workload in the wards” (p. 225). The given finding indicates that improvements in hospital structure and system can largely support clinicians’ patient safety endeavors and overall service quality.
To help a practicing clinician to keep up with the standard of care, it can be recommended to perceive medical errors and negligence mainly as deriving from failures in systems. It means that not only should hospitals cultivate high professional values among practitioners and encourage their integration in routine healthcare practices, but also stimulate the development of interdependent, cooperative, and inter-professional teamwork. Additionally, the implementation of safeguarding systems, which recognize the possibility of human errors and integrate various advanced solutions such as computerized medication prescription technologies, can help increase the level of care quality on the organization-wide level.
References
Gorgich, E. A. C., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevention of them from nurses and nursing student viewpoint.Global Journal of Health Science, 8(8), 220–227. Web.
Keeley, P., Wolf, Z., Regul, L., & Jadwin, A. (2015). Effectiveness of standard of care protocol on patient satisfaction and perceived staff caring. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 19(3), 352-360. Web.
Raveesh, B. N., Nayak, R. B., & Kumbar, S. F. (2016). Preventing medico-legal issues in clinical practice.Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, 19(Suppl 1), S15–S20. Web.
Sohn, D. H. (2013). Negligence, genuine error, and litigation.International Journal of General Medicine, 6, 49–56. Web.