The violation of the norms of interaction with patients, as a rule, has a subjective background and should be considered in individual cases. According to Hall, Johnson, Watt, Tsipa, and O’Connor, one of the causes of negligence is burnout that physicians and nurses experience due to increased stress, additional responsibilities, and other related obligations. As a result, as the authors remark, “16.6% of all hospital inpatient episodes in Australia and 3.7% in America lead to harmful adverse events.” At the same time, as Cwiek, Kikano, Klaus, Novaretti, and Weil state, both in the USA and in other countries, the authorities spend much money to increase the level of patient safety.
However, according to the study conducted by Howarth and Hallinan, for the period from 2009 to 2015, the growth of lawsuits against doctors increased by 14%. Sujan, Habli, Kelly, Pozzi, and Johnson note that the costs of providing appropriate controls are significant, and increased attention to the activities of medical providers reinforces the resonance of controversial cases. Thus, any violations have a negative effect on the entire healthcare system as a whole, despite the subjectivity of negligence and errors.
Since issues related to patient safety affect providers themselves, they have to learn ways of protecting themselves to avoid dangerous consequences. Morris, Chawla, and Francis argue that breaching professional duties often causes lawsuits. Sujan, Furniss, Anderson, Braithwaite, and Hollnagel state that the criticism of modern mechanisms for organizing the interaction of providers and patients sometimes comes from both authorities and ordinary citizens. Therefore, the issues of the violation of negligence and patient safety should be carefully considered to avoid harsh penalties.