What is the Standard of Care for Medical Doctors?
The Standard of Care for doctors refers to the level of skill, knowledge, and care in diagnosis and treatment that other reasonably competent doctors would use in the same or similar circumstances. This term is used in medical malpractice cases and peer review hearings.
Four Elements to Prove:
To prove medical malpractice four elements must be proven. The second element is conduct below the standard of care.
Duty: The doctor owed a duty to the particular patient.
Breach of Duty (Negligence): The doctor treated the patient with a level of skill below the standard of care.
Harm: The error must have caused specific harm; not every mistake results in harm.
Causation: The physician’s negligence was at least a substantial factor in causing harm to the patient.
Expert Testimony Needed
Juries rely on the testimony of qualified experts to determine the standard of care, except when it is set by statute or regulation. (See Galvez v. Frields (2001) 88 Cal.App.4th 1410)
The standard of care analysis applies to both diagnosis and treatment (See: Mann v. Cracchiolo (1985) 38 Cal.3d 18, 36).
Geographical Location and Medical Malpractice
Geographical Location: This can be a factor in establishing the standard of care in certain states, including California.
Rural areas and places without advanced imaging equipment and lesser resources may have a lower standard of care than other locations.
Physicians should consider referring patients to better-equipped facilities when necessary. For example, in some surgeries, a tertiary hospital may have life-saving equipment not available at a small community hospital.
It is up to the jury to determine whether referring a patient to a more equipped facility meets the standard of care.
There is no requirement for an expert witness to have practiced in a particular locality before rendering an opinion in an ordinary medical malpractice case (See: Borrayo v. Avery (2016) 2 Cal.App.5th 304, 310–311).
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