Unit 8: Lesson 2: The Legal Responsibilities

Lesson 2: The Legal Responsibilities

Lesson 2: The Legal Responsibilities of Health Science Professionals

Under the law, healthcare professionals have certain obligations to their patients and other healthcare professionals. Failure to follow these laws can result in criminal convictions, loss of medical and professional licenses, and civil lawsuits against healthcare professionals. What are some of the legal obligations that healthcare professionals have?

Physicians have a legal obligation to treat anyone who becomes a patient with due care, referred to as 'adequate regard for another person.' Due care means that physicians must have the training and expertise necessary to treat their patients. It also extends beyond each physician to anyone hired by the physician for their practice (or to anyone hired by a specific healthcare setting like a hospital).

Some health science careers require that professionals hold licenses to practice within a particular career area. Licenses demonstrate that a professional has the minimum required education and skills for a specific occupation. License requirements help protect patients, and they help set universal standards within a profession. In the United States, licenses are issued by licensing boards for each profession. These boards not only issue permits to individuals who have proven that they meet the knowledge and training requirements, but they also revoke the licenses of individuals who violate the licensing boards' rules, regulations, and ethics.

However, sometimes rules and regulations are not followed, and healthcare professionals sometimes make mistakes. Medical malpractice is professional negligence, where the standard of care falls below accepted levels due to a medical professional's actions or omission of action. Negligence is the failure to take reasonable actions to protect others from harm. In most instances of medical malpractice, the patient suffers injury or death as a result of the malpractice. Medical error is a common cause of medical malpractice, such as giving a patient the wrong medication or the wrong medication dosage, misdiagnosis of a medical problem, or failure to treat an acute medical issue in time to prevent injury or death.

The concept of a standard of care is important in understanding medical malpractice. Standard of care refers to the degree of care a similar healthcare professional would exercise under the same circumstances. This concept considers that healthcare professionals cannot anticipate every problem; in some cases, rare or unexpected complications may develop. Suppose another healthcare professional with similar training would take the same actions as the professional in question, given the information known and the situation as it occurred. In that case, the professional is seen as meeting the standard of care. However, there are times when healthcare professionals may not exercise enough caution or prudence when treating a patient.

Due to medical malpractice risks, most physicians and others involved with the direct care of patients carry liability insurance to cover them in the event of a medical malpractice suit. In the United States, it is pretty standard for physicians to have at least one malpractice suit filed against them during their careers. One 2011 study found that about 75% of physicians in 'low-risk' specialties and nearly 100% in 'high-risk' specialties had at least one medical malpractice suit filed against them during their careers. Estimates are that less than 10% of all claims go to court. As such, most malpractice claims do not result in settlements. When malpractice claims are settled monetarily, they generally involve some form of medical error, and this error is usually documented and provable in some way.