Even though we put our health, and at times our lives, in the hands of physicians and surgeons, we do have to realize that they are human and can make mistakes while practicing medicine. A case study is an uncontrolled study of an independent situation with an outcome that is also uncontrolled; a medical malpractice case study is an independent, uncontrolled observation of an injury due to medical error in which the outcome is uncontrolled. Here is some background on a medical malpractice case study -- what it involves, and how it's documented.
The Outline
A typical medical malpractice case study will have to include the following: A summary of events, the case (what happened), why file a suit, the perspectives of both parties, and the trends involved with that particular medical malpractice area. Also someone will need to compile an appendix, references and sources. As with any other study, the author needs to make sure that they start from the outside, and work further into the meat of the study.
Facts
The facts of a medical malpractice case study are very important to the overall study. The facts of the case are turned into a long narrative of events that led up to the actual damage. This information can be gathered from doctors' or nurses' notes, and patient annotation, putting the events into a timeline and helps separate who is telling the truth from who is not.
Trends
The trends in a medical malpractice case study typically are made up of the causes and effects of medical malpractice. A common notion is that physicians who have poor relationships with their patients are more likely to be sued. Also, with the rising cost of malpractice insurance, and the disclosure of medical related errors to the media, more people are likely to get the idea to sue their doctor for a mistake.
Case studies are typically executed to analyze phenomena as they happen, naturally. With a medical malpractice case study, the observer collects information from both sides of the defense, and uses it to analyze the situation. Case studies are beneficial because it is not a deliberate experiment, it better analyses the social phenomena involved with the particular area or subject, so in cases of medical malpractice, observers can see how the injury happened, why and how it speaks for general trends of malpractice.