When you go in to meet with your doctor, you certainly have a right to expect high-caliber medical care. Malpractice, after all, is when that care falls below the accepted levels in the industry. This doesn’t mean doctors are perfect, but simply that they have to strive for a certain level of professionalism, and that missing this mark can put them at fault.
You can’t always tell if this is about to happen, but there are some signs you can look for from the first moment you start talking to your doctor. Consider what they are so that you know what these red flags may mean.
Your doctor is in a rush
Did you know that the average time a doctor spends meeting with a patient is just 13-16 minutes? Doctors are often incredibly busy and have a lot of appointments to get through in a short span of time. They may also be behind if one of those appointments took longer than expected, and so they’re trying to rush and catch up. As with any other industry, someone who is in a rush is more prone to errors.
Your doctor is not paying attention
Maybe your doctor is on the phone the whole time or fiddling around on their computer. Electronic distractions are growing more and more common as hospitals and medical centers use electronic medical records. These records are very beneficial in many ways, but they also mean that doctors are using technology-based devices during meetings, and they might be so distracted that they don’t actually pay attention to what their patients are saying.
Your doctor is not giving you time to talk
In other cases, doctors may be so insistent that they immediately know what’s right that they just want to talk over you and tell you what to do. You feel like you don’t actually get to tell your story or ask questions. You can alleviate this, in some cases, by writing down a list of questions and telling the doctor that you would like to go through them, but you shouldn’t have to do this. If your doctor is not giving you time to present your side, it can lead to mistakes in the future because the doctor just doesn’t have the information to make the right decision.
After a serious error, no matter why it happened, it is very important to know what legal steps you can take to seek compensation for this medical malpractice.
