Virginia Medical Malpractice Act - A Legal Analysis
Virginia Medical Malpractice often results in serious personal injury. Common examples of medical malpractice are patient falls, medication errors, surgical oversights, condition misdiagnoses, and treatment failures. All healthcare providers are liable to patients for personal injury damages caused by medical malpractice.
The Virginia Medical Malpractice Act covers hospitals, HMOs, nursing homes, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, professional counselors, and licensed dental hygienists. See, Va. Code Ann. 8.01-581.1, et seq. The Act requires all such healthcare providers to use the “degree of skill and diligence practiced by a reasonably prudent practitioner in the [same or related] field of practice of specialty”. Otherwise, the healthcare provider is guilty of medical malpractice in Virginia for causing personal injury.
The Virginia Medical Malpractice Act inequitably “caps” all personal injury awards to patients. The medical malpractice cap under Virginia law is $1,925,000.00 effective July 1, 2007, and $2,000,000.00 effective July 1, 2008. Any award for personal injury in excess of the cap must be reduced to it by the court. The cap should be increased legislatively to cover catastrophic personal injuries in excess of it and the ravages of compounding annual inflation.
Virginia Medical malpractice cases require the careful selection, preparation and qualification of experts and the expenditure of substantial expert fees and other costs. Only wrongful death and other catastrophic personal injury are appropriate for medical malpractice lawsuit and should be handled by a successful experienced lawyer in the field. Virginia medical malpractice lawyer, Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr., Esq., is recognized as a top medical malpractice lawyer in Virginia.
