What constitutes the standard of care in medical malpractice cases?

Florida law recognizes that healthcare professionals are held to a standard of care that reflects the prevailing professional standard within the relevant medical community.

The benchmark for the standard of care is established by comparing a healthcare provider's actions to those of their peers facing similar circumstances.

Healthcare providers are expected to exercise safety, reasonableness, and caution to prevent risky behaviors that could jeopardize patient health, such as:

• Failure to properly diagnose
• Establishing the wrong course of treatment
• Prescription of unnecessary treatments
• Surgical errors
• Misinterpreting lab or imagistic test results

Under Florida law, a medical professional can be sued for malpractice if they have been negligent. However, proving this negligence is crucial for a successful compensation claim. The key element is demonstrating the mistake that a reasonably careful medical professional would have avoided.

What circumstances are relevant?

Florida law admits that every situation is different, so the doctor's actions depend on the surrounding circumstances. All healthcare professionals are held to the standard of conduct aligned with industry-wide care norms. Still, doctors can only provide specific care depending on their knowledge and available medical equipment. It's also relevant if the doctor was trained as a specialist. To obtain compensation for your injuries, you typically must prove the following:

• The professional breached that duty of care
• You suffered injury or damages recognized by the law
• There is a connection between your injury and the doctor's breach

Furthermore, even when a medical professional has injured you, the law does not hold them automatically responsible for your harm or your pain and suffering.

Considerations in Florida medical malpractice cases

According to Florida's medical malpractice statute, the injured patient has the burden of proving that the healthcare professional was negligent in treatment. The law demands proof by the "greater weight of the evidence," meaning that the allegations are more likely true than not. In establishing a successful medical malpractice claim, you should consider the following factors:

• Role of expert testimony - expert witnesses are pivotal in establishing the standard of care, offering opinions on whether the actions of the defendant's healthcare professional met or fell below the expected standard.
• Application of similar locality rule- Florida typically adheres to the "similar locality" rule, assessing the standard of care based on local or analogous medical community practices.
• Reliance on customary practices - the standard of care is rooted in the actions a reasonably competent practitioner in the same field would take under comparable circumstances, encompassing customary diagnostic procedures, treatment options, and patient communication.
• Consideration of professional guidelines - professional guidelines and protocols set by medical associations may be considered when determining the standard of care.
• Adaptation to patient-specific factors - tailoring the standard of care to the patient's individual characteristics involves considerations such as age, medical history, and the nature of the condition. If there are grounds to suspect that a medical specialist was negligent or failed to meet the expected standards of care, and you or a loved one were consequently injured, Florida law may grant you compensation for your injuries if you don’t exceed the statute of limitations.

If there are grounds to suspect that a medical specialist was negligent or failed to meet the expected standards of care, and you or a loved one were consequently injured, Florida law may grant you compensation for your injuries if you don’t exceed the statute of limitations.