Everybody makes mistakes—even doctors. However, when a doctor or other health care provider commits an error so egregious that leads to a patient suffering serious harm, the victim may be able to file a lawsuit for medical malpractice.
The key to any Alaska medical malpractice claim is negligence. The health care provider in question must have committed an action (or lack of action) that another professional in the same field with similar training and experience reasonably would not have. Most medical malpractice claims also require the victim to have suffered significant harm; otherwise, the time and effort of a lawsuit are rarely worthwhile.
Examples of medical malpractice include:
- Leaving a surgical tool inside a patient’s body after an operation
- Administering a harmful or deadly dose of anesthesia
- Operating on the wrong patient or wrong body part
- Misdiagnosing or failing to diagnose a condition that should have been obvious
- Harm caused by a doctor’s substance abuse, fraud, or sexual misconduct
So, what can you do if you or a loved one has been the victim of malpractice? We have written before about how to tell what qualifies as medical malpractice; an experienced medical malpractice attorney, such as myself, can also determine whether you have a malpractice claim or not during a free consultation.
However, you may also want to report unprofessional conduct and/or inadequate care to the Alaska State Medical Board. While this process is separate from a medical malpractice lawsuit, it can act as an alternative or even a starting point to one.
Reasons to report medical negligence to the State may include:
- You suffered minor or no injuries due to a doctor’s negligence, but you still want to hold them accountable for their mistakes
- You are not quite ready to take legal action, but you don’t want your doctor’s mistake to go undocumented
- You would like to strengthen your medical malpractice lawsuit by having an official complaint on file with the State
Filing a complaint with the State is an excellent starting point to an eventual lawsuit. This will also impact patient safety by allowing law enforcement and medical facilities to discipline the negligent health care professional in a timely manner, as lawsuits can take months if not years to resolve. If a board finds that a violation has taken place, and disciplinary action has been taken, this information will be entered into the public record and hopefully prevent the same person from harming someone else.
To file a complaint with the Alaska State Medical Board, click here. To learn more about medical malpractice, your legal rights, and how to seek compensation through a lawsuit, contact me for a free case evaluation. I’d be happy to review the facts of your case to determine what the best course of action is for you at no cost.
Call (888) 295-6566 or contact The Law Offices of David Henderson online to speak to an Anchorage medical malpractice lawyer about your case.