Importance of Professional Liability and Malpractice InsuranceOne of
most important employment benefits is good malpractice and professional liability insurance. Every medical assistant should be encouraged to make sure they have adequate insurance coverage when working in a medical office, walk in clinic, or any other treatment facility. Even though medical assistants are dependent practitioners and work under supervision of physician, and physician is responsible for their actions, it does not exonerate them from risk of individual liability. It is not enough to accept insurance under employer’s policy as a rider, and assume this is adequate protection in case of a lawsuit. Medical assistants should insist on their own personal policy, either through their employer or on their own. The reason is simple: Each healthcare provider is responsible for his or her own negligent acts, since malpractice is defined as "the negligent act of a person with specialized training and education." This is not to say, that medical assistants go out there and act irresponsible, doing rush jobs, and incompetent work. Having worked side by side with many highly skilled, professionally trained individuals in different healthcare and medical facilities, I understand very well what medical assistants do and how they strive to deliver quality care to patients. Mistakes, accidents, oversights, injuries, no matter how skilled and careful, can happen even to very best. They usually occur when least expected and inadvertently cause harm to a patient!
The requirements for a successful suit in negligence include: 1. A duty requiring a person to conform to a standard of conduct that protects others from unreasonable risk of harm. 2. A breach of that duty (i.e., person's failure to conform to standard of conduct.) 3. A causal connection between breach of duty and resulting injury. 4. A resulting injury or damage which results in measurable physical, emotional or economic harm.
It is not true that medical assistants are not being sued! Respondeat superior is a long established doctrine that applies when a "master" acts through "servant" to accomplish master's task. The actions of servant are imputed to master. If servant acts negligently, servant is directly responsible for negligence, while master is vicariously liable for servant's actions.
Tort or negligence law imposes a minimum level of due care on all persons in their interactions with others, including people who choose to volunteer. Negligence is generally considered to be doing something that a person of ordinary prudence would not have done under similar circumstances.
Public education is a two-edged sword. As more patients, their friends, and malpractice lawyers become aware of role of medial assistant, they also see a potential malpractice target if they believe they have received a poor standard of care. Injured patients, either on their own, or encouraged by others, wind up taking recourse to courts. Situations involving injuries or damages that generations ago would have been ignored by injured person are now regularly basis for lawsuits. Liability is a major risk for professionals such as medical assistants. Current legal theory of medical malpractice dictates that as many people as possible will be named in a suit. This can and does include medical assistants as well. Regardless whether a medical assistant is covered under employer’s policy, he or she may still be liable for his or her own negligence and may still be liable for all or part of a plaintiff’s award or settlement. In some cases employee may have to compensate employer who has paid damages to claimant. A medical assistant can either assume that liability him or herself or buy an insurance policy to transfer that risk. Insurance companies accept transfer of risk in exchange for payment of premiums.
