Stefanus Widiyanto

NIM 1451033

Malpractice is an "instance of negligence or incompetence on the part of a professional"

Types include medical malpractice ("A doctor's failure to exercise the degree of care and skill that
a physician or surgeon of the same medical specialty would use under similar circumstances")
and legal malpractice ("A lawyer's failure to render professional services with the skill, prudence,
and diligence that an ordinary and reasonable lawyer would use under similar circumstances").

Malpractice refers to Negligence or misconduct by a professional person, such as a lawyer, a

doctor, a dentist, or an accountant. The failure to meet a standard of care or standard of conduct
that is recognized by a profession reaches the level of malpractice when a client or patient is
injured or damaged because of error.

Negligent prenatal care. If negligent medical treatment is provided during the pregnancy, it
could harm the fetus or the mother (or both). Some examples of negligent prenatal care include
the physician or obstetrician's:
 failure to diagnose a medical condition of the mother, such as preeclampsia, Rh
incompatibility, hypoglycemia, anemia, or gestational diabetes
 failure to identify birth defects
 failure to identify ectopic pregnancies, or
 failure to diagnose a disease that could be contagious to the mother's fetus (such as genital
herpes or neonatal lupus).
Medication Errors
 The doctor writes an incorrect dosage on the prescription.
 The prescription is correct, but the nurse administers the incorrect amount.
 Equipment that administers the drug malfunctions, causing a large dose of medication to
be administered over a short period of time. For example, this can happen when a
defibrillator has a dead battery or an intravenous pump has a dislodged valve.
Surgery Errors
Some medical malpractice claims arise from mistakes made in the operating room. A surgeon
might be negligent during the operation itself (puncturing internal organs, operating on the
wrong body part, or leaving surgical instruments in the body) or the nursing staff might be
negligent in administering post-op care (which could result in complications like serious
infection).

Who Is Responsible for Nursing Malpractice?

Often, a key issue in nursing malpractice cases revolves around who is responsible for the
nurse's negligent acts: the hospital or the attending doctor.

The Hospital
A hospital may be legally and financially responsible for nursing malpractice if:
 the nurse was an employee of the hospital
 the nurse was fulfilling a job duty when the patient was injured, and
 an independent doctor (that is, one not employed by the hospital) was not in control of
the nurse.
Because most nurses are employees of hospitals, hospitals are frequently a defendant in nursing
malpractice cases.

The Attending Doctor

If an attending doctor is supervising the nurse, the hospital may be off the hook even though it is
the nurse's employer. Whether the nurse is under the supervision of the doctor when the
misdeed occurs depends on:
 whether the doctor was present, and
 whether the doctor had control to prevent the nurse's negligence.
Example: During surgery, a nurse gives too much medication to the patient and the large drug
dose injures the patient. The doctor performing the surgery could be liable for the patient's
injuries because the doctor was present when the nurse improperly administered the drug and
was responsible for monitoring all aspects of the surgery .

From criminal aspect as provided for in Indonesia’s Criminal Code and from so many articles of
criminal code that round up malpractice act a physician committed to his or her patient, Articles
359 and 360 KUHP should receive special attention.
Article 359:
“Anyone who because of his or her fault causes the death of person shall be punished by a jail
sentence of no longer than five years or detention of no longer than one year”.
From the content of the article, we can infer one meaning that the death of the person had not
been intended and it was not the aim of the crime doer, but the death was only a consequence
of the carelessness or negligence of the doer (culpa delict). It may occur when a physician
conduct a surgery of a patient, but in fact after the surgery there has been an object left
unintentionally in the patient’s body (such as bandage and cutter). It may cause the death of the
patient. However, the leaving of bandage or cutter was not intended, instead it was only a
negligence or carelessness of the physician. Because it was so, the physician may be punished
either by employing article 338 KUHP (ordinary manslaughter) or by article 340 (pogrom).
Article 360:
Paragraph (1):
“Anyone who because of his or her fault causes others suffer severe injury shall be punished by a
jail sentence of no longer than five year or detention of no longer than one year”.
Paragraph (2)
“Anyone who because of his or her fault causes others injure such that the others become
sicktemporarily or can not conduct hierarkhi or her position or job temporarily, shall be punished
by a jail of no longer than nine months or detention sentence of no longer than six months or
fine sentence of at most Rp.4,500.”
The formulation of article 360 paragraphs (1) and (2) is nearly the same as that of article 359. A
difference between them is in the consequence of the doer’s act. While according to article 359
the consequence is a death, in article 360 paragraph (1) it is severe injury, whereas according to
paragraph (2) the consequence is an injury such that the person either to be sick temporarily or
cannot conduct his or her position or job temporarily.

Example Of Malpractice

Going in for brain surgery is worrying enough for most patients, but those in Rhode Island
Hospital could be forgiven for being more worried than most. Despite being the most prestigious
hospital of the state, and a teaching hospital for students of Brown University, the hospital made
the basic yet tremendous mistake of operating on the wrong side of a patient’s brain. Three
times in one year.

The first incident was the result of a third-year resident failing to mark which side of the brain
was to be operated on. The doctor and nurse in this operation claimed they were not trained in
how to use a checklist, although one must ask how many people would allow their heads to be
cut open by someone who has clearly never received professional training in the fine art of
grocery shopping.

In the second incident, a different doctor (with over 20 years experience) never filled out which
side of an 86 year old man’s brain had a blood clot, assuring the nurse that he remembered. The
patient in this case died a few weeks later.

In the third case, the chief resident neurosurgeon and a nurse both clarified which side of the
brain was to be operated on beforehand, and then proceeded to operate on the other side. All
three cases involved different doctors, but whether it’s better to be in a hospital where one
doctor repeats a mistake multiple times, or several doctors make the same mistake is debatable.