What Are the Types of Medical Malpractice?

Posted on August 04, 2008

All healthcare professionals including surgeons, dentists, psychiatrists, nurses, hospital administrators, nursing home personnel, and family practitioners can potentially harm a patient. As a result, there are many different types of medical malpractice. Here are some examples:

Emergency Room Malpractice – Emergency room errors may include delayed treatment or diagnosis, misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, laboratory errors, failure to fully evaluate or fully treat a patient, failure to monitor a patient, medication errors, surgical errors, contaminated blood transfusions, poor sanitation, and other negligence.

Birth Injuries – Obstetrical errors which cause birth injuries include improper use of delivery instruments, failure to monitor fetus or mother or failure to respond to fetal distress, failure to perform a timely c-section, failure to respond to mother’s medical problems, inappropriate medications administered to the mother, and failure to monitor and treat newborns.

Failed or Delayed Diagnosis – Harm can be immediate or long term. Heart attack, stroke, cancer, meningitis, brain injuries, and neck fractures are commonly misdiagnosed.

Prescription and Medication Error – Any error in the administration of medicine that causes harm to a patient can be a result of malpractice.

Surgical Error – Surgical errors include wrong site surgery (removing the wrong organ or limb, surgery on the wrong part of the body, or surgery on the wrong patient), anesthesia error, use of surgical instruments which have not been properly sterilized, and instruments left inside the patient leading to infection and injury.

Nursing Home Negligence – Nursing home neglect includes failure to provide adequate fluids and nutrition, assistance with hygiene needs, proper clothing and shelter, medication and medical care, protection from safety hazards, and adequate supervision.

These are only a few examples of medical malpractice. If you think you or a loved one might have a medical malpractice case, and you live in New Jersey or the Philadelphia metropolitan area, contact attorneys Weiss & Paarz today to arrange a consultation.