Negligence Case Study

Patients usually go to the clinicians based on their reputation. When patients approaches doctors they have two expectations in their mind, one is that based on the knowledge, skills, and experience that clinician have they will be able to provide to the high-quality medical treatment. Secondly, they believe that clinicians will do no harm to them, as a result of their ignorance, recklessness, and negligence when offering medical care (Gutheil et al 1984). According to Ashwai 2008, any person who does not have any medical knowledge, skills, and experience is a quick and is not supposed to provide care to the patients. For a medical profession to be found guilty of medical negligence and be responsible of causing medical harm due to their low-quality professional care, the court requires the person who is declaring medical professional malpractice to demonstrate four conditions, which includes the Duty, derelict, directly and damage.

Joyce did perform her duty to take care of the patient, but she was reckless in her delivery of medical care. She did not give Mary the required attention and as a result, she did not record the history of penicillin allergy, as a result Mary to be admitted due to allergic reaction of the medications that Dr. Joyce dispensed to her. According to (Gutheil et al 1984, p. 47-63), although the language which is used in determining the care standards is different in most countries, the medical standard care may take many actions, which may include doctor prescribing or dispensing low quality medical care to the patient, failure to record on the chart important investigations which he/she inquired from the patient, and failing to deliver suitable and required treatment to the patient (Grisso et al 1998, p 57).

For example, the facts clearly indicate that Mary told the doctor that she is allergic to penicillin medications but the doctor did not take any action even to record that information on the medication chart, as a result, she dispensed antibiotics containing penicillin to Mary. Immediately when Mary took the start dose of these medications she started experiencing shortness of breath, dizziness and stomach cramps and as a result, she was hospitalized. This event was as a result of allergic reaction that Mary developed as a result of those antibiotics which contained penicillin. In the sketch which is presented here, the final research would be if the person who is claiming medical malpractice did suffer damages or harms which is compensable (Beck et al 1998).

And if it is established that the patient endured some physical and psychological harm the doctor carries the liability. It is a rule of thumb that when prescribing medications, doctors must inquire if the patient is on any other medications to avoid issues of drug-drug interactions and also to ask the patient questions about allergies to drugs to avoid drug allergic reactions which can cause severe damages or harm to the patients as in case of Mary who was hospitalized as a result of allergic reaction to penicillin. It’s the duty of the doctors to provide high-quality medical care to the patients because they are entrusted in preserving lives. In addition, doctors should have time to engage in highly informed discussion with the patient on the benefit and risks which are associated with the medications or treatment which they are going to offer the patient.