Medical malpractice is negligence committed by a medical professional. Negligence is conduct that causes injury or damage because it falls below a required standard. Medical negligence is established when a person suffers harm because of the foreseeable risky, harmful or insufficient care of a medical professional. Any person who is qualified and who assumes any part of the responsibility for a patient’s medical and/or psychological well-being can be guilty of medical malpractice. This includes nurses, psychologists, and specialists.

Certain aspects of medical malpractice cases vary from state to state but, in order to be guilty of negligence three circumstances must always exist.

Duty is the most essential component to every medical malpractice claim. The accused medical professional must be obligated to render services to the person claiming negligence. This means that a doctor who goes to a nursing home to visit a relative has no obligation or duty to render services to an elderly person who slips and falls while he is present.

If duty is established, there must be a breach of that duty. It must be proven that the accused did not care for or treat the accuser with the skill, care, or speed that a reasonable peer professional would have under the same circumstances. It is customary for expert witness to be utilized in determining the standard of care that is reasonable. These expert witnesses are usually other practicing physicians.

The last critical component of medical malpractice is harm or damage. As a result of something that a medical professional did or did not do, a person must suffer a negative result that he/she would not have suffered if the medical professional had not made a bad decision. No action can be brought against the medical professional if the negative result is one that is accepted as a possibility for a given condition. Nor can action be brought because a disease progresses while a patient is in treatment. However, medical malpractice is present if a doctor attempts “novel” or alternative treatments when there is a conventional treatment with a proven record of success.

Medical malpractice may span beyond mere negligence into gross negligence. Gross negligence is present when a medical professional has acted so recklessly or harmfully that the mistake seems obvious to any reasonable person, even one who has no medical expertise. For example, a surgeon who amputates a finger that only needs stitches is grossly negligent.