Yes, doctors can be held criminally liable. 1.Most malpractice cases don't reach the level of criminal charges. If a doctor's professional care falls below standards of negligence and leads to recklessness or intentional misconduct, he or she may be criminally liable for his or her behavior. Medical malpractice often results in civil cases.
Doctors are in demand for everything from leaving surgical tools inside a patient to making a misdiagnosis. Surgeons can face wrongful death charges in civil court from a patient's family. Medical malpractice arises when treatment provided by a healthcare professional falls below the standard of a body responsible for medical opinion and poor care has caused damage or injury. The court held that simple inattention, error of judgment, or an accident are not evidence of negligence on the part of a medical professional and that failure to use special or extraordinary precautions that could have prevented a particular incident cannot be the norm for judging alleged medical malpractice.
Currently, the American Medical Association recognizes that recklessness or serious deviation from the standard of care must be criminally guilty, but strongly opposes criminal prosecution for medical malpractice. Therefore, the minimum level of negligence sufficient for the imposition of liability in a medical malpractice case (conduct that does not meet the relevant standard of care) is not sufficient to sustain a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. Medical licensing boards, peer review panels, and other agencies charged with the responsibility of overseeing the medical profession need to be more vigilant in identifying and taking prompt action in cases that merit disciplinary action. Although there is often confusion as to what constitutes a violation of the standard of care for medical malpractice purposes, there is no significant evidence that this confusion extends to criminal liability determinations.
While there is no denying the fact that there are genuine cases involving medical malpractice, the issue that bothers the medical fraternity is that irreparable harm is often caused to a doctor or hospital due to a large number of speculative complaints. Aside from these obvious examples, there are cases that are difficult to distinguish whether the medical offense is a mere negligent medical error or a criminally guilty error. Balasubramanyam stated, in reviewing the previous order, that great care and caution should be exercised when initiating criminal proceedings against medical professionals for alleged medical malpractice. In cases where the action is defensible, if someone else in the same situation could have done so, medical errors usually end up in civil court in the form of malpractice charges.
Instead, this statement suggests that even simple negligence, such as that required for a medical malpractice case, is somehow becoming a basis for criminal liability. The Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyers at Quinn Logue LLC are prepared to help you with your legal claim. Negligence can include patient falls, bedsores, or any other involuntary act that occurs in a long-term care or medical malpractice case. The above cases are examples of extreme circumstances in which medical malpractice rose to the level of a criminal offense, especially since patients had died under the care of doctors.
