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M A R C H 2 0 1 6 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
I
f a patient slips, trips or falls while at
your facility, does it count as medical
malpractice? The answer is not as sim-
ple as you might expect. Depending on the
person, how she fell and where she fell, you
could be sued for either medical malprac-
tice or general negligence. Whether a law-
suit is judged as malpractice or negligence
can be crucial to your facility's success in
court. As you'll see, you're better off with a
medical malpractice suit.
For starters, medical malpractice suits
have several burdens the plaintiff must
meet, including a shortened statute of limitation or statute of repose,
as well as expert testimony or certificates of merit, which makes
these cases harder to bring and prosecute against healthcare facilities.
Medical malpractice suit damages are also capped in many states,
which reduces your financial risk. General negligence cases have no
such restrictions.
For these reasons, plaintiffs typically want their cases categorized as
general negligence, though it's usually in the facility's best interest to
have a medical malpractice suit brought on instead. For that reason, we
see a lot of litigation over this categorization issue, especially when it
comes to cases involving slips, trips and falls.
Decided case-by-case
As you'll see in "Malpractice or Negligence" on the next page, slip, trip
and fall cases are often decided on a case-by-case basis. The out-
Suits From Slips, Trips and Falls
What's your liability when a patient takes a tumble at your facility?
Medical Malpractice
Alex Stein, PhD
• PROTECT PATIENTS Make sure you have
strict policies in place to help reduce the risk of
patient slips, trips and falls.
