If you believe a doctor, nurse, or hospital in Atlanta should have handled your care differently, the legal question is whether that care met the standard of care. Our Atlanta malpractice attorneys can obtain your records, arrange a review by a qualified physician, and explain whether the care appears to have fallen below that standard. Moriarty Medical Malpractice Lawyers prepared this guide to explain what the standard of care means under Georgia law and how a breach is proven.
What the Standard of Care Means
Under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-27, a person who practices medicine or surgery for compensation must bring a reasonable degree of care and skill to that work. The standard of care is how that duty is measured in a specific case. It asks what a reasonably careful provider in the same field would have done under the same or similar circumstances.
The standard is not perfection, and it is not the best care available anywhere. It is the level of care that a competent provider in the same field would be expected to deliver. The comparison is also made with the information the provider had at the time. A diagnosis that looks obvious in hindsight may not have been apparent from the symptoms and test results available during the visit.
How the Standard Changes With the Provider and the Setting
Each provider is measured against others in the same field. A surgeon is compared with surgeons, and a nurse is compared with nurses. An anesthesia provider is measured against accepted anesthesia practice, which is the central question in anesthesia error claims. Labor and delivery care is measured against obstetric and nursing standards, which is why birth injury claims often turn on how quickly the care team responded to changes on the fetal monitor.
Hospitals are held to standards of their own. A facility can be responsible for its staffing, its policies, and the systems that carry test results and orders between departments. Failures in those systems are a common basis for hospital negligence claims.
Emergency care is treated differently in Georgia. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-29.5, a claim arising from emergency medical care in a hospital emergency department or obstetrical unit requires clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence. The same rule covers a surgical suite immediately after evaluation or treatment in the emergency department. That is a higher bar than ordinary negligence. Whether the care in a given case counted as emergency medical care under the statute is often disputed, which is one reason emergency room malpractice claims call for a careful early review of the records.
How a Breach of the Standard Is Shown
A breach is a departure from the standard of care. It can be something a provider did, such as operating on the wrong site, or something a provider failed to do, such as not following up on an abnormal test result. Our article on when inaction is negligence explains how a failure to act can support a claim.
Proving a breach starts with the records. Physician orders, nursing notes, medication records, imaging, and the time stamps in the electronic chart show what the providers knew and when they acted. Those records are then compared with what accepted practice required.
Because the standard of care is a medical question, it is typically established through testimony from a qualified medical witness. O.C.G.A. § 24-7-702 sets the qualifications for that witness in a malpractice case:
- Licensure. The witness must have been licensed to practice at the time of the alleged negligence.
- Recent experience. The witness must have actively practiced or taught in the relevant area for at least three of the five years before the alleged negligence.
- Same profession. The witness generally must belong to the same profession as the provider being evaluated. A physician who supervised or taught nurses or physician assistants may address their standard of care. A nurse may not address a physician’s standard of care.
The same qualifications apply to the physician who signs the sworn statement Georgia requires when a malpractice lawsuit is filed. Our guide to the affidavit of merit explains that filing requirement.
Showing a breach is only one part of a claim. The patient must also show that the breach caused the injury and resulted in damages, which our guide to proving a malpractice claim covers in detail.
What the Standard of Care Does Not Require
The standard of care does not guarantee a good result. A complication can occur even when every step of treatment meets accepted practice. When more than one approach is accepted in a field, choosing one of those approaches is generally not a breach, even if the outcome is poor. Our guide explaining what medical malpractice is covers the difference between negligence and a bad outcome.
Have Your Care Reviewed
Continue any medical care you need and follow the advice of a treating physician about your health. This guide explains legal concepts and is not medical advice.
Moriarty Medical Malpractice Lawyers represents patients and families in Atlanta and nearby communities, including Forest Park. Contact us to schedule a free consultation and have our attorneys review whether your care met the standard Georgia law requires.
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