medical malpractice

What is Medical Malpractice?

It is when a healthcare professional or facility fails to act appropriately within the standard of care, which results in injury to a person.

What is the Standard of Care?

This refers to the level of care that a qualified practitioner would provide a patient based upon their illness, symptoms or condition.

Often, the failure of the standard of care is caused by:

• Failure to fully advise a patient of risks with treatment
• Failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis of a condition
• Delaying the diagnosis of a condition or disease
• Performing an incorrect operation based on condition
• Failure to perform adequate testing for diagnosis
• Performing surgery on the incorrect part of the body
• Post-Operative mismanagement

It may even extend to other medical professionals other than doctors, such as nurses and pharmacists in the instance of providing wrong medications and incorrect dosages.

Malpractice vs. Other Negligence Cases

In these cases, there must be a pre-certification filed with the court system. This will reference that an appropriately licensed medical professional has provided a written statement that there exists a probability that the care performed in treatment fell outside the acceptable standard of care, which resulted in harm to the patient.

How We Fight For You

Malpractice cases require more resources in order to correctly evaluate and begin a case. The expert who is signing the certificate must also be the same expert who testifies at trial. It also requires a separate certificate for each professional against whom a claim is brought and for each claim.

Each expert can be quite costly however we take extreme measures to ensure that the damages in the case justify the expected costs.

Expert Qualifications:

• Possesses an unrestricted physician license in any state
• Be actively engaged in the field of practice or retired within the last five years
• Be familiar with the applicable standard of care relevant to the case
• Must practice in the same sub-specialty (or similar) with the standard of care.
• Must be board certified (if the defendant is the same)

As with all cases, gathering and keeping of evidence is of most importance. With malpractice cases, it is essential to obtain copies of medical files early to prevent any changes in medical records or the deletion of medical records.

Medical Malpractice in Pennsylvania

In 2017 there was a total of 13 verdicts in Pennsylvania in which the Plaintiff was awarded over $500,000 in compensation from damages. Under Pennsylvania law, there is no general cap on compensatory damages for medical malpractice. Punitive damages are subject to some statutory limits and other requirements.

If you are the victim, contact the Biscontini Law Firm today at (570)-283-7777 for additional information and to schedule a free consultation. We conveniently serve in Archbald, Ashley, Avoca, Bear Creek, Bethany, Carbondale, Clarks Summit, Dallas, Delaware Water Gap, Dickson City, Dunmore, Dupont, Duryea, Dushore, Eagles Mere, East Stroudsburg, Edwardsville, Forksville, Forty Fort, Hawley, Hazleton, Honesdale, Jessup, Lake Wallenpaupack, Landsford, Laporte, Laurel Run, Lehighton, Luzerne, Matamoras, Milford, Moosic, Mountain Top, Mount Cobb, Mount Pocono, Nanticoke, Old Forge, Palmerton, Pittston, Plains, Scranton, Shavertown, Troop, Waymart, Weissport, Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming, and surrounding areas.