• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.57-127
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• 2008

In medical malpractice lawsuits, negligence is generally defined as conduct that is culpable because it falls short of what a reasonable person would do to protect another individual from a foreseeable risks of harm. Thus, the essence of negligence is a breach of obligations to be attentive, and the breach of obligations to be is negligence. However, whether negligence is or not depends on time, place, litigation forms and the judge since the meaning of negligence is wavering on the basis of abstract and normative judgment. In this thesis, what is medical negligence, a breach of obligations of attention for a doctor in medical malpractice lawsuits, would be it further enacted that doctors have the responsibility to protect the patients as a subordinate duty due to a principle of faith and sincerity besides the main duty for medical contract-performance since the suit is a litigation form to be based on responsibilities of experts, especially doctors, though having factors that are non-contractual as a trait for medical treatment. Further on the concept, when the plaintiff asserts and proves a specific fact from the recent moderation of the burden of proof about medical malpractices, whether the court should find a true bill in medical malpractice actually or not has been discussed.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.3-26
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• 2015

Recently, Practicing of ghost surgery and duty of informed consent of doctors have become a big issue in the medical dispute and lawsuits. The ground of admitting the informed consent and the agreement(self-determination of patients) can be based on the dignity of man and the right to pursue his happiness guaranteed under Article 10 of the constitution in theory. However there are no explicit legal regulations on the duty of the informed consent and there is no substantive legal enactment on the informed consent, but there is a collision between self-determination of patients and the discretionary power of doctors. If the discretionary power on the duty of the informed consent was extended it may result in the infringement of the right of surgical patients, so called arbitrary medical treatment. Relating to this issue, New Jersey Supreme Court held that a patient has the right to determine not only whether surgery is to be performed on him, but also who shall perform it. Moreover it held that a surgeon who operates without the patient's consent engages in the unauthorized touching of another and, thus, commits a battery'. But there are no ghost surgery cases adopting battery theory in Korea, and professional negligence has been considered rather than the battery, regarding an absence of hostile intent to injure patient. Supreme Court of Korea held that a doctor who operates a medical procedure without the patient's valid prior consent based on wrong diagnosis commits professional negligence resulting in injury, and the patient's invalid consent do not preclude wrongfulness'. However, if a health care provider conducts a completely non-consensual treatment or substitute surgeon without consent, the action should be plead in battery, not negligence, but if a health care provider violate his duty of care in obtaining the consent of the patient by failing to disclosure all relevant information (risks) that a reasonable person would deem significant in making a decision to have the procedure, the action should be plead in negligence, not battery. Therefore, the scope of patients' self-determination can be protected by stating clearly the scope of the duty of the informed consent and the exemption of the informed consent legislatively, it is considered that it is valid to legislate the limitation of the discretionary power.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.113-136
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• 1999

There are some new trends in judgments concerning medical malpractice. which include emphasis on medical professionals' explanation duty in order to materialize patient's rights of self-determination. Now, patient is not a mere subject of medical and nursing care any more, but a subject, participating in medical practice on equal terms with medical professionals. Legal accountability is no limited to nurses in advanced practice: it is a recognized fact of life for every practicing nurse. whether she is an RN employed as a staff nurse in a hospital, a Certified Nurse-Midwife in independent practice or a patient's home. Therefore, it is essential for nurses to be as familiar as possible with the legal guidelines that govern their patient care responsibilities. However there are only a few studies focused on nursing negligence. To define nurse's civil liability in medical malpractice, it is necessary to indentify both legal nursing behaviors and nurse's due care in those nursing behaviors. So this paper focused on nurse's due care, especially in nursing malpractice. To clarify nurses' due care. chapter II has focused on nursing behavior and the scope of nursing practice based on the medical law and health care related study results. Chapter III deals with the content and scope of nurse's due care. Generally. negligence is defined as not doing something which a resonable person. guided by those ordinary considerations which or dinarily regulate human affairs. would do. or doing something which a resonable and prudent man would not do. Next. it describes how we can set the standard of due care in nursing practice. There is objective factors and subjective factors. And we also discuss about the limitation of due care in nursing practice. Finally. chapter IV deals with the case studies related to nursing negligence in the situation of determination. Now', patient is not a mere subject of medical and nursing care any more, but a subject participating in medical practice on equal terms with medical professionals. Legal accountability is not limited to nurses in advanced practice; it is a recognized fact of life for every practicing nurse. whether she is an RN employed as a staff nurse in a hospital. a Certified Nurse-Midwife in independent practice or a patient's home. Therefore, it is essential for nurses to be as familiar as possible with the legal guidelines that govern their patient care responsibilities. However. there are only a few studies focused on nursing negligence. To define nurse's civil liability in medical malpractice, it is necessary to identify both legal nursing behaviors and nurse's due care in those nursing behaviors. So this paper focused on nurse's intravenous injection. post operation nursing care. blood transfusion. and patient nursing care. The result of this paper is as follows. First. there are several cases dealing with nurse's negligence in nursing practice. however, those cases didn't judge nurse's due care based on individual -specific standard but general-objective standard. Second, there is a tendency to put an emphasis on the principal of belief to distinguish who has the liability in the case of medical malpractice among medical care team. So nurses shoud practice nursing care more actively to protect themselves and patients because there is an effort to form professional nurse system and the scope of nursing practice will be deeper and broader. Third, standard of care is a necessary element in establishing negligence. If a nurse is able to meet the standard of care, no breach will be found.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.103-131
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• 2022

2021, the Supreme Court recognized the foundation of the quasi-indecent act by force by the concept of 'alcohol blackout' although there were multiple situations that it was hard to judge insanity of the victims was evident in the cases with drunken victims. This means the consideration of insanity state due to temporary false memory rather than the total loss of mental capacity from the existing concept of insanity. However, the interpretation of insanity in the criminal law has to be strict and its application could be difficult. In particular, the comparison precedent which is very similar to the subject one was determined not to be the same with the state of the insanity or inability to resist during the sexual relation though the victim had the symptoms of alcohol blackout, denying the quasi-indecent act by force. This argument is determined to be logical remarkably, and insanity and quasi-indecent act by force should be discussed considering the medical review on the alcohol blackout of the victims sufficiently when determining the individual precedents. In addition, the most important point in the sexual crimes is the consent, and there may be possibility of negligence in case that uncertain consent is determined as the consent to continue the following act. Also, in case of uncertain consent or suspicious, universal determination not to follow the act should be able to realized. Therefore, strong evidence is required for criminality, determining that the victim is the state not to be able to do the normal judgment and the minimum willful negligence is existed that the accused uses this. In the subject ruling, the act of the accused has to be clearly punished, however, it is determined to be unreasonable for the punishment with the quasi-indecent act by force under the interpretation of the current regulations.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.199-247
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• 2012

According to the review and analysis of medical cases that are assigned to the Supreme Court and all local High Court in 2011 and that are presented in the media, it was found that the following categories were taken seriously, medical and pharmaceutical product liability, the third principle of trust between medical institutions, negligence and causation estimation, responsibility limit, the meaning of medical records and related judgment of disturbed substantiation, Oriental doctors' duties to explain the procedures, IMS events, whether one can claim for each medical care operated by non-physician health care institutions to the nonmedical domain in the National Health Insurance Corporation, and the basis of norms for each claim. In the cases related to medical pharmaceutical product liability, Supreme Court alleviated burden of proof for accidents with medical and pharmaceutical products prior to the practice of Product Liability Law and onset the point of negative prescription as the time of damage strikes to condition feasibility of the specific situation. In the cases related to the 3rd principle of trust between medical institutions, the Supreme Court refused to sentence the doctor who has trusted the judgment of the same third-party doctors the violations of the care duty. With respect to proof of a causal relationship and damages in a medical negligence case, the Supreme Court decided that it is unjust to deny negligence by the materials of causal relationship rejecting the original verdict and clarified that the causal relationship shall not deny the reasons to limit doctors' responsibilities. In order not put burden on patients with disadvantages in which medical records and the description of the practice or the most fundamental and important evidence to prove negligence and causation are being neglected, the Supreme Court admitted in the hospital's responsibility for the case of the neonate death of suffocation without properly listed fetal heart rate and uterine contraction monitor. On the other hand, the Seoul Western District Court has admitted alimony for altering and forging medical records. With respect to doctors' obligations to description, the Supreme Court decided that it is necessary to explain the foreseen risks by the combination of oriental and western medicines emphasizing the right of patient's self-determination. However, questions have arisen whether it is realistically feasible or not. In a case of an unlicensed doctor performing intramuscular stimulation treatment (IMS), the Supreme Court put off its decision if it was an unlicensed medical practice as to put limitation of eastern and western medical practices, but it declared that IMS practice was an acupuncture treatment therefore the plaintiff's conduct being an illegal act. In the future, clear judgment on this matter should be made. With respect to the claim of bills from non-physical health care institutions, the Supreme Court decided to void it for the implementation of the arrangement is contrary to the commitments made in the medical law and therefore, it is invalid to claim. In addition, contrast to the private healthcare professionals, who are subject to redemption according to the National Healthcare Insurance Law, the Seoul High Court explicitly confirmed that the non-professionals who receive the tort operating profit must return the unjust enrichment and have the liability for damages. As mentioned above, a relatively wide range of topics were discussed in medical field of 2011. In Korea's health care environment undergoing complex changes day by day, it is expected to see more diverse and in-depth discussions striding out to the development in the field of health care.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.155-190
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• 2015

The court sentenced meaningful decisions related to the medical service in 2014. The court assumed the negligence of medical staff in the accident if being broken while using the medical equipment for not an original purpose at the time of surgery and ruled that the compensation for damage can be recognized in recognition of the causal relationship between the explanation duty violation and side effect's happening when unproven surgery on safety is implemented regarding the duty of explanation, that in the case of cosmetic surgery, the subject on the duty of explanation needs to be expanded compared to the general medical practice and that the duty of explanation cannot be accepted for the range that cannot be expectable. Also, the court has provided the requirement and limitation of self-determination exercise in case of the crash between patient's self-determination and doctor's duty of care and has ruled that as automobile insurance contract is a contract with the insurance company to pay regarding liability for car accidents, treating patients and taking the insurance money is not illegal activity even for the unlicensed hospital violating the medical law while established. The judgment stating the opinion that medical practitioners cannot be punished according to the medical law prohibiting the receiving of rebate in case that medical practitioners did not receive benefit while the medical institution itself gained an unfair economic benefit also stands out. And the court has ruled that even if the medical institution who received a business suspension is closed, the suspension is still effective in case that the same operator opens a new medical institution in the same place, ruled on the requirement to conduct a medical service outside of the medical institution that the doctor opened and ruled that the administrative penalty cannot be conducted prior to the conviction on charge of violating the medical law.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.41-72
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• 2018

In the division of labor (or teamwork) in medicine, the responsibility of medical and nursing staff should be separated or distributed to justify negligent criminal offenses. The present work refers to the standards by which the due diligence and responsibility of the individual persons are to be determined and delimited. In this context, it has been proven that objective theory as a measure of due diligence is appropriate. From a moral point of view, when assessing due diligence, it makes sense to impose greater individual or higher performance demands on the perpetrator, but law and order require that due diligence should result from socially relevant human behavior. To give objective measure of negligence and to provide the highest level of personal responsibility, so that man can not be burdened too much responsibility and it is accordingly with an equality theorem. Afterwards some points are presented, which should be considered in a concrete fact in the determination of the medical negligence. Medical action has specific characteristics such as professionalism, discretionary and exclusive, unbalance of information. These characteristics distinguish medical actions from general negligence. The general level of knowledge, the urgency, working condition and working environment of the medical facility, duration of the professional practice, assessment of the medical activity are crucial in this context. As a standard of delineation of due diligence, I have used the permitted risk and the principle of trust. In the horizontal division of labor, the principle of trust applies. The principle of trust applies in principle in cases of division of labor interaction, when doctors in the same hospital exercise their own specific occupational field or everyone works in another hospital. However, this is not true for every case. In the vertical division of labor, the principle of trust does not apply and the senior physician can not trust the assistant doctors. In this case, the principle of trust is converted into a duty of supervision for assistant doctors by the senior physician. This supervision requirement could be used as a random check.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.129-149
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• 2016

Medical dispute means the dispute between the hospital and the patient due to a medical accident. In general, medical accidents must be in accordance with the terms that are used in the medical dispute adjustment method stated in Article 2 (definition). In relation to this, there is a need to discuss an efficient operation scheme for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in medical disputes. In addition, it is necessary to look at issues of civil liability and criminal liability. In particular, in the consumer dispute arbitration committee, there is a case to make a "decision not to adjust" in aggressive intervention in the process of conflict resolution. The medical staff, on the basis of its "decision," can use this as a proven material for civil and criminal cases. This is rather upon the determination of the consumer council as a typical side effect to defend the user's perspective. This is the "decision" as was expressed from an order, "not adjusted." It is also determined to be easy and clearly timely. In the medical litigation, it is requesting the burden of proof of a patient's cause-and-effect relationship with the doctors committing negligence and medical malpractice. This seems to require the promotion of legislation in the direction to reduce future cases. It is determined that the burden of proof of medical accidents must be improved. The institution receiving the medical accident should prevent a closure report. Further, it is necessary to limit the transition to a franchise point. In this paper, we understand the problems of the current medical dispute resolution system, trying to establish a medical dispute resolution system desirable through an efficient alternative. In addition, it wants help in the protection and realization in medical consumers' and patients' rights. The relevant authorities will take advantage of these measures. After all, this could contribute to the system for a smooth resolution of a medical dispute.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.241-251
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• 2001

A flow determination algorithm is proposed for the distributed hydrologic model. The advantages of a single flow direction scheme and multiple flow direction schemes are selectively considered to address the drawbacks of existing algorithms. A spatially varied flow apportioning factor is introduced in order to accommodate the accumulated area from upslope cells. The channel initiation threshold area(CIT) concept is expanded and integrated into the spatially distributed flow apportioning algorithm in order to delineate a realistic channel network. An application of a field example suggests that the linearly distributed flow apportioning scheme provides some advantages over existing approaches, such as the relaxation of over-dissipation problems near channel cells, the connectivity feature of river cells, the continuity of saturated areas and the negligence of the optimization of few parameters in existing algorithms. The effects of grid sizes are explored spatially as well as statistically.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.27-55
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• 2023

The term "Collaborative medical care" commonly used in South Korea refers to the case where doctors from different medical departments work together to treat a patient within the same medical institution. Therefore, "Collaborative medical care" represents the aspect of a medical team where various medical professionals collaborate based on their expertise to treat patients. Additionally, doctors from different specialties within the medical team engage in horizontal division of labor at an equal status, distributing legal responsibilities according to the principles of division of labor. The Supreme Court also acknowledges cases where multiple doctors collectively provide medical treatment through division of labor or collaboration and states that the doctor who initially attended to the patient must accurately inform the subsequent attending doctor about the patient's condition to enable appropriate measures. In medical institutions with multiple specialties, when doctors from different specialties collaborate to provide medical treatment, the doctor who attended to the patient initially must decide whether collaboration is necessary based on the patient's condition. Subsequently, they must inform the doctor from the relevant specialty about the patient's condition accurately to facilitate appropriate actions. The successor doctor who participates in collaborative medical care must actively communicate relevant treatment information related to the patient's condition with the predecessor doctor who requested collaboration, exchange opinions, and do so until the patient's treatment concludes. However, the determination of the necessity of collaborative medical care should be based on the patient's condition at the time, and it cannot be asserted that collaborative medical care is mandatory in all cases. Whether there is negligence in the decision about the necessity of collaboration will be assessed based on the legal principles of a doctor's duty of medical care.