The Law on Negligence and How it Affects Medical Assistants

Tort and negligence law imposes a minimum level of due care on all persons in their interactions with others, including people who choose to volunteer. Negligence is generally considered failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances.

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Negligence Law Suite Requirements

An increasing numbe of people in the USA initiate law suits for negligence. Tort and negligence laws impose a minimum level of due care on healthcare professionals when they interact with patients. Interestingly, it is no longer just the  doctor that gets sued for negligence and malpractice. Paramedical and all other allied health care professionals, including their medical assistants, and even those who act as volunteers are often named in these law suits. 

Negligence in a medical office is a serious issue. When healthcare professionals, that's ANY healthcare professional, including medical assistants who work under the direct supervision of the doctor,  fail in their duty to patients based on a clearly defined standard of conduct may mean the medical office and all persons involved might get sued. The threat of a law suit increases if the medical office has low standards or conducts their daily operations in an unsafe manner.

The requirements for a successful negligence law suite are:

• Breach of duty requiring a person to conform to a standard of conduct that protects others from unreasonable risk of harm 
• Breach of that duty (i.e. failure to conform to the standard of conduct) 
• Causal connection between the breach of the duty and the resulting injury 
• Resulting injury or damage which results in measurable physical, emotional or economic harm. 

What Will Happen Now?

As more patients, their family, relatives, friends and malpractice lawyers become aware of the role of the medical assistant, they also see a potential malpractice target if they believe they have received a poor standard of care. Those injured, either on their own, or encouraged by family, friends, or their attorneys wind up taking their cases to the courts.

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