Medical Malpractice vs Medical Negligence

Hey, Brian, what's the difference between medical malpractice and medical negligence? The difference between medical malpractice and medical negligence? Well, really, they are the same thing. Both terms refer to when someone is injured due to a mistake made by a medical professional or a doctor, a nurse, a hospital in general. The term negligence means failure to use reasonable care under the circumstance. That's negligence. When negligence is caused by a medical professional, you call it either medical negligence or medical malpractice. Some lawyers don't like the word medical malpractice because it makes it sound as though there are some standard that's higher for doctors other than reasonable care under the circumstances. You have to show affirmatively that the doctor did something malevolent or evil, bad. That's not true. Doctors, like everyone else, are held to the same standard of care, negligence, ordinary, reasonable care under the circumstances, whether you call it medical negligence or medical malpractice, it's the same thing. Doctors and hospitals have to act reasonably under the circumstances, just as you and I do when we're driving our car. We can't act in any other way other than what is reasonable under the circumstances. And if we act in some unreasonable way under the circumstances, we’re held responsible for our conduct. The same is true and should be true of doctors. When in the course of their job, they do something unreasonable under the circumstances or fail to use ordinary, reasonable care in doing their jobs, they're held accountable. That's medical malpractice or medical negligence, whatever you want to call it.