Today we are covering: what is "standard of care," why it's important to you as a medical professional, and more importantly, how you can stay within your standard of care and make sure that you're not subject to any unwarranted liability. 

When Does Duty Call? 

Amongst physicians or lay people, they usually talk about malpractice in terms of being any unskilled, bad, or negligent treatment that causes injuries to the patient. That can be an action that you take, or an omission that you do not take, in your care of a patient. So, how do we determine if your actions or omissions are bad, unskilled, or negligent? We come up with a “standard of care.” Before we get to that definition, we have to go backwards and ask, “To win a lawsuit, what does the plaintiff have to prove in order to win?” 

In most states, the plaintiff has to establish that the professional owed a “standard of care” or a “duty of care” to that...