Defined, medical negligence or malpractice is the failure to provide a reasonable degree of medical care or skill or willful negligence on the part of the medical professional in the treatment of a patient that leads to bodily injury or to loss of life. If you or a loved one has suffered injury from medical misconduct by an Arizona nursing home or long-term care facility you can seek legal help from our experienced Nursing Home Abuse Law Firm.
Each and every day people across the nation die from being medically misdiagnosed, improperly treated or from experiencing adverse drug events (ADEs). In nursing homes and long-term care facilities medication errors are not uncommon. Research has estimated as much as 800,000 preventable ADEs occur each year in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
What is most alarming about these statistics is that much of this harm is preventable, since many strategies and techniques exist for reducing medication errors. Failure to utilize such strategies can result in medical negligence.
According to a 2006 report by the Institute of Medicine, medicine errors commonly occur during every step of the medication process, but they occur most frequently during the prescribing and administering stages. However, none of the studies cited includes errors of omission—failure to prescribe a drug in cases where it should be.
In general, grounds for a medical negligence or medical malpractice case can include: