Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or nurse or other medical professional deviates from the standard of care and causes harm to a patient. The standard of care is based on what treatment is exercised by reasonably competent physicians or other medical personnel when confronted with patients exhibiting like or similar medical conditions. The standard of care is generally the same for most conditions throughout the U.S. All doctors and nurses receive the same general medical training whether they practice in major metropolitan areas or rural settings.

Medical personnel should be trained and equipped to recognize potential or actual medical problems and respond properly to those problems either through diagnosis and treatment or referral to someone competent to diagnose and treat the condition or problem.

In today's society most medical negligence occurs through inattention or indifference rather than incompetence. While there are some incompetent medical professionals, most are competent and make mistakes because of economic pressure exerted by HMO's, Medicare and Medicaid payment providers, and health insurance companies, as well as the motivation for profit by medical institutions. These economic pressures cause hospitals and physicians to cut costs by employing  fewer nurses, employing fewer diagnostic procedures, and to select less costly but often less beneficial treatment regimens.

In addition, physicians and hospitals are required to treat more patients in less time. As a result, mistakes occur and patients are harmed. Other mistakes occur because competent physicians assume that individual patients suffer form the most common cause of symptoms rather than less common but more dangerous conditions. Many physicians have seen the same symptom pattern so many times that they fail to consider the fact that 5 to 10% of  patients exhibiting those same symptoms have a more complicated and dangerous condition than the other patients they have seen with the same symptoms.

Finally, some patients are harmed because their physicians are incompetent or if generally competent, are incompetent to treat the patient's particular condition. Also, hospitals and physicians employ incompetent nurses, assistants or technicians who fail to adequately perceive dangerous conditions or to communicate those dangerous conditions to the physician.

Not every poor outcome is causes by medical negligence. Some poor outcomes are recognized complications of certain conditions, treatments and procedures. They can occur even in the absence of medical negligence. However, if you feel you have been victimized by medical negligence, please contact us. We have knowledge and resources available to analyze your case and take appropriate action.