Health Care Legal Aspects in Radiography

Flashcards defining key legal terms, concepts, torts, and case precedents in radiography health care.

Administrative Law

The branch of law dealing with licensing and regulation, where penalties include suspension and revocation of license.

Criminal Law

The branch of law that addresses wrongs against the state, with penalties including fines, restitution, community service, and incarceration.

Civil Law

The branch of law that addresses wrongs committed by one party harming another, with penalties consisting of monetary damages to compensate for loss or to punish.

Plaintiff

An individual, typically the patient, who initiates a lawsuit against another individual, group, or company responsible for an unlawful act resulting in harm, injury, or personal damage.

Defendant

An individual, group, or company accused in a court of law of committing an unlawful act, who must answer to the court regarding the charge.

Felony

A serious crime that may be punished by imprisonment.

Misdemeanor

A less significant crime usually punished by a fine or by imprisonment for less than a year.

Tort

A civil wrong committed by one individual against the person or property of another, representing a violation of civil or personal injury law.

Assault

A deliberate act involving a threat of touching in an injurious manner without consent, where the victim is aware of the threat even if no physical contact occurs.

Battery

Bringing physical harm to an individual or making unwanted physical contact with another individual, representing an assault carried out or completed.

Medical Battery

A specific legal violation committed when consent is given to perform one procedure, but another procedure is performed instead.

Justice Benjamin Cardozo

The jurist who ruled in 1914 that every adult of sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with their body, making a surgeon who operates without consent liable for damages.

False Imprisonment

The unjustified restraint of a person, which requires written orders from a physician to be legally permitted.

Invasion of Privacy

Unjustifiably intruding upon another's right of privacy by appropriating their name/likeness, interfering with seclusion, publishing private facts, or placing them in a false light.

Quasi-Intentional Torts

Torts based on speech that resemble intentional misconduct, including defamation, invasion of privacy, and breach of confidentiality.

Defamation

Wrongfully damaging the reputation of another person by publishing false statements to third parties.

Libel

Written defamatory statements made about another person.

Slander

Spoken defamatory statements made about another person.

Negligence

A civil tort and cornerstone of a malpractice case involving a failure to act with reasonable care, which does not require a specific plan to harm someone.

Four Elements of Negligence Action

The required legal conditions to prove negligence: 1) Duty, 2) Breach of duty, 3) Proximate harm or causal connection, and 4) Harm or damages.

Favalora v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

A legal case where a radiologist was found negligent for failing to secure a patient's medical history prior to an X-ray exam, leading to the patient fainting, falling, and fracturing her hip.

Four Conditions to Establish Malpractice

1) Establishment of standard of care, 2) Demonstration that standard was violated, 3) Demonstration that loss/injury was caused by radiographer, and 4) Demonstration that actual loss/injury occurred from negligence.

Informed Consent

Permission for an interventional procedure based on trust, provided in lay language and the patient's primary language, documented in a signed and witnessed consent form.

Implied Consent

Consent assumed in emergency, life-threatening situations where an unconscious victim cannot respond, as determined strictly by a physician.

Baker Act (1971)

Florida legislation allowing involuntary examination or commitment initiated by judges, law enforcement, physicians, or mental health professionals when a person poses harm to self/others or self-neglect.

Good Samaritan Laws

Laws granting legal immunity from damages to individuals who voluntarily render emergency care at the scene without expecting a fee or reward.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

A legal doctrine meaning 'the thing speaks for itself,' shifting the burden of proof to the defendant when an injury occurs under their sole control that normally only happens through negligence.

Franklin v. Collins Chapel Hospital

A case demonstrating Res Ipsa Loquitur involving an 82-year-old patient with dementia who died after sustaining 3rd degree water burns while in the defendant's sole care.

Respondeat Superior

A legal doctrine meaning 'the master speaks for the servant,' establishing that employers and healthcare facilities are responsible for the negligent acts of their employees.

Risk Management

A healthcare system of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks to maintain quality patient care and conserve financial resources.