Common Medical Malpractice Types

There are three major types of Medical Malpractice:

1. Failure to make the proper diagnosis

The number of misdiagnoses is staggering. About 12 million adults who seek outpatient medical care are misdiagnosed each year in the U.S. The most common sources of medical malpractice claims between 2013 to 2017 were diagnostic errors.

2. Failure to treat a medical condition

If a medical professional fails to treat a patient through negligence or medical error, it can be considered medical malpractice. The general principle is that the doctor is required to adhere to accepted standards of care. Examples of this type include:

– Failure to assess and observe a patient’s condition
– Failure to conduct required medical tests
– Failure to refer a patient to a specialist
– Failure to treat appropriately and in a timely manner
– Failure to advise about the available treatments for an existing condition
– Failure to treat a patient because they didn’t have insurance

3. Medication errors

According to MedicineNet.com, about 1.3 million people are injured every year in the United States due to medication errors. 

There are many types of medication errors, including:

• dispensing the wrong medication to a patient
• dispensing the wrong dosage of medication (either too much or too little)
• mislabeling the medication
• not warning the patient of the typical side effects of the medication
• prescribing the patient a drug with which the patient will have an allergic reaction
• prescribing the patient a drug that interacts badly with other medications that the patient is already taking