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1. Differentiate between criminal law and civil law as related to the practicing medical assistant. Provide a real world example of each in relationship to working in a medical administrative or clinical environment.
Law is generally divided into two subcategories: criminal law and civil law.
Criminal law: Criminal law applies to scenarios where a felony or misdemeanor has occurred. Felony refers to a serious punishable act (such as murder, abuse, arson, etc) committed by an individual. Misdemeanor refers to a less serious punishable offense, which does not require imprisonment, but rather rehabilitation and fine. For a medical assistant, criminal law would apply when he/she fails to follow her duty due to negligence and causes harm to the patient accidently and tries to eradicate the evidence of the same by tampering with the records (Lindh, Pooler, Tamparo & Dahl, 2009). Example: In June 1996, a medical assistant was appointed to take care of an elderly woman in a senior citizen’s home with dementia, unable to speak or be mobile. The patient was advised by the doctor to have whirlpool bath twice a week to treat bed sores. The home did not have such a facility and the patient was given regular bath every day in a bath tub. On one such occasion, the medical assistant placed the patient in a bath tub without checking the temperature which was at a scalding 138 degree Fahrenheit. The patient died in three days (Rosen Louik & Perry, 2006).
Civil law: Civil law applies to scenarios where the plaintiff (the patient) claims that he/she has been wronged by the physician and/or his/her staff by non-fulfillment of their legal obligations thereby causing injury. Such cases usually end up in payment of compensation to the plaintiff if the accusations held true. Example: In Grossman v. Barke, the patient, a morbidly obese woman, fell from the examination table after being asked to get on it unassisted and fracturing her hip. The patient sued the medical assistant and the doctor for negligence and failure to take steps to prevent her falling from the table (2005).
2. Define what a tort law is and provide two examples of tort law as related to the practicing medical assistant.
The laws under civil law are called as torts, to distinguish them from criminal laws. A tort is a wrongdoing as defined under civil law above. They are sub-classified as i) intentional torts and ii) unintentional torts.
Intentional tort, as the term suggests, is a wrongful act done on purpose with intent to harm. Examples of such an act would be assault (threat to cause injury), battery (physical contact without permission that may cause injury), invasion of privacy, fraud (promising cure), imprisonment under false pretext (not allowing patient to leave) and defamation (publicly damaging patient’s image). Example: In the case of Limbaugh v. Coffee medical center, et al, the medical assistant was accused of battery and assault for physically harming a ninety year old patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (2001).
Unintentional tort, are wrongful acts that occur accidently. Most common form on this kind of act is negligence. In a gross negligence case, a 9 year old boy was given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen at doses far greater than required causing lethal consequences. The fatal accident occurred due to crisscross connection of the tubes and not checking the equipment before starting the procedure (Ferner, 2000).
3. Identify two real world medical examples of risk management techniques the medical assistant should use in the medical office to prevent incidences of liability.
A medical assistant should always strive to keep the medical office from landing potential lawsuits by working within scope of his/her, identifying potential risks to patients within the medical office, accepting possible risks and working to eliminate them and finally reducing risk.
In the Grossman v. Barke case, the medical assistant should have physically held the patient to help her get on the examination table instead of asking her to get there on her own and letting her fall. Some risks have to be anticipated. The fall of the patient from the table had to be anticipated using common sense.
Working within scope of his/her training is the most important risk management rule. Under no circumstances can the medical assistant give a medical advice to a patient or order the patient to continue medication without consulting the physician. A medical assistant’s training does not include prescribing medicine or medical advice. They should do their duty properly with conviction. In 2013, an abortion clinic was run fraudulently by a doctor whose license was revoked in 2010. In that clinic medical assistants, whose main job is to assist the doctor and not perform any invasive procedure, had to carry out regular duties of radiologist, registered nurses and the doctor (Dale, 2013).
References
Dale, M. (2013, April 17). Assistant recounts negligence at abortion clinic. Atlanta Journal Constitution, Retrieved from http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/assistant-recounts-negligence-at-abortion-clinic/nXPnM/
Ferner, R. E. (2000). Medication errors that have led to manslaughter charges. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 321(7270), 1212.
Grossman v. Barke, 2005 WL 249045 A.2d—PA
Limbaugh v. Coffee medical center, 2001. No. M1999-01181-SC-R11-CV.
Lindh, W. Q., Pooler, M. S., Tamparo, C. D., & Dahl, B. M. (2009). Delmar's comprehensive medical assisting: administrative and clinical competencies. Cengage Learning.
