Medical malpractice: a review of issues for providers

Physicians are sued with some frequency in this country and then find themselves surrounded, by lawyers, judges, and juries, as well as unhappy patients and their families. The experience is traumatic and feels much, more personal than the simple cost of doing business, which the legal professionals consider it to be. Discussed in this-article are the basics of medical malpractice law, novel theories of liability, defenses to suits, medical record keeping, and hospital liability based on a physician's act of negligence. This overview of medical negligence is designed to introduce the practicing hematologist/oncologist to the terms and concepts of the law as they relate to medical practice in the hopes that familiarity will allow the physician to understand more fully and converse more comfortably.