Błąd medyczny – termin, rodzaje i podstawa prawna
Medical error – term, types and legal basis

Summary/Abstract: The notion of medical error hasn’t been defined clearly enough in legal terms. Numerous authors have presented various definitions of a medical error – the essence of the concept and the common element of the definitions is the action of a healthcare worker that is incompatible with the requirements of current medical knowledge. Unfortunately, the phenomenon of medical error is becoming more and more common. A large percentage of patients declare that they have been harmed by a medical error and there is an upward trend in the number of medical malpractice cases investigated by the prosecutor’s office. There are different types of medical error, which can be classified as follows: diagnostic, therapeutic, technical, prognostic, organizational and informational error. A healthcare worker is subject to criminal, civil and professional liability for committing a medical error. According to the criminal law, a medical error is usually a criminal offence of failure to act, because the healthcare worker is liable for patient’s health and life. A healthcare worker may be convicted by criminal court after fulfilling the characteristics of one of the prohibited acts specified by the penal code.

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