Question

Discuss the various ways that risks of malpractice litigation because of infections that cause death or disability can be reduced.

Answer 1

Enhancing quality, promoting patient safety and ensuring value is the health care industry's current trifecta.

The failure to follow evidence based practices can amount to medical negligence and outline s risk factors for acquiring infection.

1. Patient risk factors:- these include the duration of the be patient's stay in a clinical setting, the severity of the illness or injury for which the patient was admitted and the function and the capacity of their immune system during the visit.
2. Organizational risk factors :- these include the cleanliness of the hospital,and treatment setting in General including the filtration of HVAC system, concentration of patient beds, cleanliness of water systems, cleanliness of building surfaces and sterility of medical devices.
3. Iatrogenic risk factors:- these include the care with which the doctors, hospital staff, nurses and other care providers perform. This include the frequency with which hands are washed , use of antibiotics especially care used during invasive procedures such as IV administration of medication intubation and urine catheterization.

A risk management program include the following components of risk identification, risk analysis, risk control and risk financing

• Reducing financial lossess through effective investigation and management of claims.
• Developing a patient representative program
• Inspecting the premises and discovering deficiencies in the physical plant
• Reviewing policies and procedures to reflect acceptable quality of care.
• Investigating adverse incidents and reviewing incident reports
• Reviewing patient grievances
• Conducting educational programs to minimize future risks
• Conducting root cause analysis to determine what contributed to an adverse events

5 principles that can help health care organizations provide safe, consistently high quality care.

• Sensitivity to operation s
• Reluctance to simplify
• Preoccupation with anticipating and avoiding failure
• Deferance to expertise
• Resilence

Malpractice liability for infection acquired in a hospital

If a patient a contracts an infection in a hospital their health go from bad to worse- and the hospital may be liable in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Hospital liability for sepsis or septic shock injury or death

Determining liability for injuries and death resulting from HAIs and sepsiscan be very challenging from a legal perspective and requires an investigation into the specific circumstances of how the infection was acquired, why it was not promptly treated and whether it could or should have been prevented.

In order to bring a successful lawsuit for damages resulting from HAI and sepsis, the defendant's liability will need to be established, usually by a qualified expert witness ( a neutral third party medical doctor) who examines the treatment situation and determines if there was compliance with the appropriate medical standard of care at every turn.

The patient can bring a medical malpractice lawsuit within a short time frame, or in the worst case scenario s family members can sue the hospital for wrongful death. The patients responsibilities in instances of HAIs:- a person who is or who will be hospitalized should strictly comply with the medical instructions both during his or her hospital stay and afterward both to prevent more dangerous infections and to avoid any challenges to a hospital infection claim.