failure to provide professional services with the skill usually exhibited by responsible and careful members of the profession, resulting in injury, loss, or damage to the party contracting those services. Though accountants, lawyers, and other professionals can be charged with malpractice, the term is most commonly associated with medical professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, hospital technicians.) Most medical malpractice suits are for negligence on the part of medical professionals in providing expected level of care. In recent decades, partially as a consequence of medical costs, there has been a considerable expansion of medical malpractice suits. This has led to vastly higher rates for malpractice insurance, and, some observers contend, a "defensive" approach to medicine in which medical personnel are unwilling to order any potentially risky procedures, and protect themselves against subsequent legal action through excessive patient testing. There have been a number of proposed solutions to the increasing burden of malpractice costs, including compensation boards, no-fault statutes, and imposed limits on the amount of damages available in various malpractice suits.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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