Question

Malpractice Case Study

At 8:00am, a teenage patient arrives at her nephrologist’s office to receive her daughters scheduled dialysis. A few minutes into her dialysis treatment, the patient begins to bleed at her catheter site. The patient is sent to the ER at hospital. Upon arrival, the ER physicians collaborate with the patient’s nephrologist to discuss and implement plan of care. The plan of care included a CBC and a CMP. At 10:30 AM, the ER physicians sutures the catheter site and proceeds to discharge patient. 2 hours post discharge, the ER nurse cancels the patients ordered lab work because “the patient had already been sent home.”

               The following morning, the patients mother called the nephrologist office to discuss concerns that her daughter’s dialysis was not completed the day prior. The nephrologist told the mother not to worry and that the ER physician would have communicated with him if there were discrepancies in lab work. Later that day, patient arrives at ER and subsequently dies as a result of hyperkalemia.

Answer the following questions below:

1. What are the four elements that must be met in order to determine medical malpractice?
2. Does this case demonstrate merit based on the four elements of medical malpractice?
3. Who is at fault in this case?
4. Is the fault shared amongst all the healthcare providers involved in the patients care?
5. Does the hospital share fault? If yes, explain your answer.

Answer 1

1) The four elements that must be met in order to determine medical malpractice are: a) A professional obligation owned to the patient : duty must be owned to the patient. b) A breach of such duty or obligation: it means when the obligation to the patient has not been meant c) The injury caused by the breach: when the breach of obligation cause the patient injury. d) The resulting damages caused. B) No, this case does not demonstrate merit based on the four elements of medical malpractice. C) The hospital is at fault,The ER physician and the nephrologist breach their agreement to give the patient the '''plan of care'' they implemented for her. D) yes, all the health care provider are at fault in this case. E) yes ,the hospital share fault too because a patient was discharged from the hospital without completing her dialysis . which later led to the death of the patient eventually.