Liliana Petrica Dumitru, Mihaela Patriciu, Mihaela Carmen Șerban, Răzvan Popoiu, Vasile Sîrbu
ABSTRACT
Medical professionals have a legal and professional responsibility to prevent harm to their patients. This means meeting each patient’s standard of care for their medical condition. When a doctor makes a mistake in treating a patient, he or she may be responsible for a malpractice lawsuit by the victim. However, medicine is an uncertain field, and honest mistakes can and do happen. Everyone should know the difference between a medical error and a medical negligence. A medical professional who makes a mistake does not automatically make a medical mistake. In this review are presented literature data collected from a Medline search, regarding the medical error, fault and negligence in medical activity. The search of literature data was performed for studies published between 1994 and 2020, regarding the terms of medical fault, negligence, medical error, medical mistake and malpractice.