Medical Law

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Medical Law
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Schloendorf vs Society of New York Hospital in
1914
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Schloendorf vs Society of New York Hospital in
1914

• 1. Protects individual autonomy
• 2. Protects the patients status as a human being
• 3. Avoids fraud and duress
• 4. Encourages health care practitioners to
  carefully consider their decisions
• 5. Fosters rational decision making by the
  patient
• 6. Involves the public in medicine

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Types of Law
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Types of Law

• Constitution of the US considered the supreme
  law of the land and separates the three branches
  of government
• Executive - Presidency
• Legislative local state and federal levels
• Judiciary - case law

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Standard of Care

• The degree of skill (proficiency), knowledge, and
  care ordinarily possessed and employed by members
  in good standing within the profession.
• The standard of care will change and grow as the
  profession grows.

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Causes of Action

• Torts private or civil wrong or injury, other
  than breach of contract, for which the court
  provides a remedy in the form of an action for
  damages.

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Causes of Action

• Assault any willful attempt or threat to
  inflict injury on the person of another, when
  coupled with the apparent present ability to do
  so
• Any intentional display of force such as would
  give the victim reason to fear or expect
  immediate bodily harm

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Causes of Action

• Battery any unlawful touching of another that
  is without justification or excuse.

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Causes of Action

• False Imprisonment conscious restraint of the
  freedom of another without proper authorization,
  privilege, or consent.

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Causes of Action

• Defamation holding up a person to ridicule,
  scorn, or contempt in a respectable and
  considerable part of the community.

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Negligence

• Failure to do something that a reasonable person
  guided by those ordinary considerations that
  ordinarily regulate human affairs would do, or
  the doing of something a reasonable and prudent
  person would not do.

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Proving Negligence

• 1. A duty to the patient by the health care
  practitioner
• 2. Breach of this duty by act or failure to
  perform the standard of care
• 3. Compensable injury
• 4. A causal relation between the injury and the
  breach of duty

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Legal Theories

• Res Ipsa Loquitur the thing speaks for itself
• 1. The type of injury did not occur except for
  negligence
• 2. The activity was under the complete
  control of the defendant
• 3. The plaintiff did not contribute to his or
  her own injury in any way

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Legal Theories

• Respondeat Superior the master speaks for the
  servant
• The master is liable in certain cases for the
  wrongful acts of his or her servants.

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Legal Theories

• Corporate liability the hospital or health care
  facility by responsible for the quality of care
  delivered to consumer.
• 1. Duty of reasonable care in selection and
  retention of employees
• 2. Duty of reasonable care in maintenance and
  use of equipment
• 3. Availability of equipment and services.

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Informed Consent

• Persons agreement to allow something to happen
  that is based on a full disclosure of facts
  needed to make the decisions intelligently.

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Informed Consent Form

• 1. Authorization clause
• 2. Disclosure clause
• 3. Anesthesia clause
• 4. No-guarantee clause for therapeutic
  procedures
• 5. Tissue disposal clause
• 6. Patient understanding clause
• 7. Signature clause

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THE END