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Confidentiality
The principle that prohibits physicians from disclosing confidential comments made to them by patients unless required to do so by law. The law may require physicians to violate patient confidentiality if the patient poses a serious threat to his or her own health and the well-being or that of others.
Affidavit
A voluntary statement or declaration of facts that has been written down and confirmed under oath.
Joint-and-several liability
Liability in which each liable party is individually responsible for the entire obligation. Under joint-and-several liability, a plaintiff may choose to seek full damages from all, some, or any one of the parties alleged to have committed the injury.
Res ipsa loquitur
The use of res ipsa loquitur should be prohibited in medical malpractice cases because under this doctrine the mere fact that the injury occurs means that the defendant was negligent, although it is not all the time.
Punitive damages
Damages awarded in addition to compensatory (economic and noneconomic) damages to punish a defendant for willful and wanton conduct.
Informed Consent
Is the process by which fully informed patients can participate in choices about Their healthcare. It originates from the legal and ethical right the patient has to direct what happens to her body and from the ethical duty of the physician to involve the patient in her health care.
Delirium
A disturbance of the brain function that causes confusion and changes in alertness, attention, thinking and reasoning, memory, emotions, sleeping patterns and coordination.
Medications Malpractice
This category covers claims arising from inaccurate medication prescriptions, such as wrong medication or dosage level.
Spinal cord abscess
Spinal cord abscess is a disorder characterized by inflammation and a collection of infected material (pus) around the spinal cord.
Arbitration panels
Many states have formed arbitration panels in order to resolve disputes between doctors and their patients.
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