The difference between medical malpractice and battery

Louisiana residents rely on medical practitioners to provide them with safe ways to care for themselves and their loved ones. When those standards aren’t met, it can cause critical damage and long-lasting ripples in a person’s life. Today, we will take a look at the differences between medical malpractice and medical battery.

Of the two aforementioned terms, medical malpractice is the one that the general public is most familiar with. According to the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, medical malpractice is a situation in which the negligent actions of hospital staff contribute to – or cause – the injury or death of a patient in their care. Negligence can come in many different forms, including:

• Mixing up medications
• Misreading a chart
• Not performing thorough diagnoses
• Not checking in on a patient often or thoroughly enough

On the other hand, FindLaw states that battery is considered a general intent offense. This means that there must be the intention to do harm present in the actions of the hospital staff. As a member or members of staff are actively trying to harm a patient, this is much less common and thus not as well-known. The primary similarity between the two is that regardless of intent or lack thereof, someone gets injured.

Anyone who has been injured or lost a loved one to either medical malpractice or medical battery understand that it’s a painful situation to deal with regardless of the cause. For this reason, many seek financial compensation to help cover costs during these trying times, leaving them more room to focus on emotional recovery.