If you have sought treatment here in Mississippi for any serious medical condition lately, you know that you are not simply being cared for by a single doctor. Because of the complexity of modern medicine and the specialization of medical care, you were probably poked and prodded and reviewed by a host of medical professionals. Which one of those medical professionals “treated” you? That is a key question if an error occurs that harms you, as a to establish medical negligence or malpractice claim, a doctor-patient relationship must exist. It is often difficult to determine who made the medical error that resulted in your injury, and then a second inquiry must be made as to whether a doctor-patient relationship existed.
If you were injured or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of medical care, one thing is critical to know—you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.
A Hospital Hypothetical
Imagine your spouse go to the emergency room for gastrointestinal problems that are causing severe heartburn. The emergency room physician that treats her thinks she may have an ulcer but is not sure. She provides her prognosis to a gastroenterologist on staff, who confirms that your wife’s symptoms likely are an ulcer and to treat them accordingly. Several weeks later, when your wife’s conditions do not improve, further testing reveals that she has stomach cancer. As a result of the delay, your wife’s cancer spreads, requiring extensive treatment, expense, and loss of work. Who is to blame for that misdiagnosis?
Why the Doctor-Patient Relationship is Important to Malpractice Claims
To prove negligence or malpractice several steps, or elements, must be shown:
(a) First, there must be a doctor-patient relationship;
(b) Second, the doctor must meet a reasonable standard of care under the circumstances;
(c) Third, the doctor’s failure must cause harm.
You cannot prove negligence without all three elements. Accordingly, determining whether there was a doctor-patient relationship in (a) is critical to having any case at all. Generally speaking, a doctor-patient privilege is created when a physician takes responsibility for a patient’s care. It generally does not exist when a doctor simply provides information or an informal consultation regarding another doctor’s patient. So in the above scenario, the emergency room doctor would have a doctor-patient relationship with your hypothetical injured wife, but the gastroenterologist whom she consulted likely would not.
The “standard of care” in (b) above is much higher for a gastroenterologist than it is for an emergency room doctor; as a result, it is harder to show that the emergency room doctor violated the standard of care if the error in diagnosis is so subtle than an emergency room doctor would not be expected to diagnosis it. On the other hand, a gastroenterologist may be expected to make that diagnosis given his or her specialized training. Therefore, the viability of your negligence claim may depend on establishing that the gastroenterologist had a doctor-patient relationship with you in addition to the emergency room doctor.
What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?
If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of a medical error, you may have a malpractice claim. Let the seasoned Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with the hospital’s attorneys. These are important tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you and that you cannot handle alone.
