Ok sure. Seems like a silly statement to start with. Of course bad outcome doesn’t automatically mean medical malpractice. But when you’re in the hospital and something goes wrong… it’s hard to tell the difference between a treatable complication and negligence.
Things go south during medical treatment and it’s scary not knowing why or what happened. That’s why patients need to know the difference between an unavoidable bad outcome and true medical malpractice. Without understanding the legal options after medical negligence… patients will never know if they deserve financial compensation through a lawsuit.
That’s where a trial verdict attorney comes in.
These are highly skilled attorneys who review medical records and consult with medical experts to determine whether malpractice occurred. According to a recent study, over 250,000 deaths per year are caused by medical errors in the United States alone. With stakes that high, working with an experienced Irvine medical malpractice lawyer is the best way to determine whether negligence caused the harm. There’s absolutely no reason to settle for a bad outcome if negligence was involved.
Let’s dive in
- What Counts as a Bad Outcome?
- What Actually Makes It Medical Malpractice?
- Real Examples That Show the Difference
- How a Trial Verdict Attorney Evaluates Your Case
- What You Need to Prove a Malpractice Claim
What Counts as a Bad Outcome?
As any doctor will tell you… medicine is not an exact science. There are always risks when you go into surgery, start a new medication or undergo just about any form of treatment.
Simply put… A bad outcome refers to when something adverse happens during treatment despite appropriate care being provided.
A surgical procedure is done correctly but the patient has an unexpected allergic reaction to a drug. The heart surgery is flawless but the patient still dies due to other complications. A tumor is removed but cancer still spreads throughout the body.
These are bad outcomes, not malpractice.
Just because something went wrong during medical treatment does not mean a healthcare provider did something wrong. Uncertain conditions can worsen even with proper treatment, medicine can have adverse side effects despite being prescribed correctly and mistakes can occur in surgery even when everything is done perfectly.
What Actually Makes It Medical Malpractice?
Contrary to bad outcomes…
Medical malpractice is when something preventable was done wrong by a healthcare professional. It’s when proper care is not given and that failure causes harm to the patient.
To be clear…
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider breaches the standard of care and that breach causes injury to the patient.
Standard of care means exactly what it sounds like. The normal level of care that any reasonably cautious healthcare provider would use in the same situation. If a doctor, nurse or surgeon provides sub-par care and that care causes a patient to suffer… that’s malpractice.
Need some examples? Here’s a few:
- Performing the wrong surgery
- Operating on the wrong body part
- Leaving a medical instrument inside of a patient
- Making a diagnostic error that any competent doctor would not have made
- Prescribing the wrong medication or dosage
These aren’t accidents or natural complications. These are mistakes that can and should be prevented. No one should be subjected to sub-par care when they’re in the hospital trusting medical professionals to do their jobs.
Real Examples That Show the Difference
It might help to see a few examples side-by-side…
Example 1: Surgical Mistakes
Bad Outcome: A patient dies after heart surgery even though the surgeons performed the procedure perfectly.
Medical Malpractice: Surgeons leave a piece of surgical equipment inside of the patient which causes them to die.
Example 2: Misdiagnosis
Bad Outcome: A doctor examines all of the symptoms but cannot figure out why the patient is feeling unwell.
Medical Malpractice: A doctor diagnoses a patient with acid reflux when they’re actually exhibiting textbook signs of colon cancer.
Do you see how those two are different? In both of the medical malpractice examples the provider did something that a reasonable doctor would not have done. Or failed to do something that a reasonable doctor would have done.
That causes direct harm to the patient which qualifies it as malpractice.
How a Trial Verdict Attorney Evaluates Your Case
Unless you’re a medical professional yourself… it can be difficult to spot malpractice. That’s why trial verdict attorneys work with medical experts to determine whether malpractice occurred.
Medical records get poured over by experts who know the standards of care for every procedure. They review every decision the doctor made and compare their actions to what a reasonable healthcare provider would have done.
Attorneys use that information to decide whether there’s enough evidence to move forward with a case. Medical malpractice lawsuits are serious business. In 2024 the average of the top 50 malpractice verdicts hit $56 million. That’s almost double what it was just a few years ago.
Of course if there’s no merit to the case a good attorney will be upfront about that too.
See also: Improving Your Financial Health With Bookkeeping 5305541804
What You Need to Prove a Malpractice Claim
If you want to file a medical malpractice claim you must be able to prove four elements:
- A duty of care existed
- The standard of care was not met
- The provider’s negligence caused you harm
- You suffered damages as a result of that harm
Notice how the provider’s negligence is only one requirement. You must also prove that any reasonably careful provider would have acted differently under the same circumstances.
Plus you must show that their negligence directly caused you harm. And you must have suffered actual damages as a result of that harm.
If you can prove these four things you have a solid basis for a malpractice claim. If you can’t… it might be a bad outcome.
Pulling It All Together
So now you know the difference between medical malpractice and a bad outcome. Here’s the quick recap…
A bad outcome occurs during treatment when everything is done correctly but the result is still unfavorable.
Medical malpractice occurs when the standard of care is not met by a healthcare provider and that failure causes harm to the patient.
Patients deserve to know the difference. Too often facilities and doctors cover up their mistakes by telling patients it was just a “bad outcome”. Don’t be bullied into accepting malpractice as bad luck.
Review your medical records and see what happened. Bring those records to a qualified medical malpractice lawyer and let them point out the errors.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
