Gross negligence, when a person is wholly and inexcusably responsible for failing to provide care that falls within their responsibilities, is the most severe type thereof. It is also frequently associated with healthcare and results in malpractice lawsuits claiming the failure to diagnose and treat. While the range of diagnoses that can accommodate such failures is exceedingly long, some are vastly more common than others. For example, pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis is a very common occurrence in medical practice and related malpractice cases (Wilson et al., 2020). It can manifest in the work of internists, emergency physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and even obstetricians – in short, almost any medical specialty or clinical setting (Wilson et al., 2020). As such, the potential for gross negligence in the failure to diagnose and treat pulmonary embolism exists in many medical settings.
The measures necessary to address this problem and achieve the desired outcome of minimizing negligence in cases of a pulmonary embolism depend on the nature of negligence cited as evidence of malpractice. In most cases, the negligent act in question was the failure to provide prophylactic anticoagulation (Wilson et al., 2020). Hence, the best way to mitigate or altogether avoid the issue is to establish firm guidelines for anticoagulant use in case of possible deep vein thrombosis. After the aforementioned guidelines are devised during the planning phase, the implementation should ensure that the staff belonging to all medical specialties is well aware of the requirements. The obvious way to assess and reassess the efficiency of the measures would require regular checks to establish the frequency of malpractice claims related to the issue before and after the implementation.
Reference
Wilson, E., Phair, J., Carnevale, M., & Koleilat, E. (2020). Common reasons for malpractice lawsuits involving pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. Journal of Surgical Research, 245, 212-216. Web.