3 Industries that Rely on Malpractice Insurance

Whether you work in the medical, legal, architectural, or any other professional field, your good name means everything. No doubt, you do everything possible to treat your patients or clients with the utmost care and respect and to follow all proper protocols expected and required in your field. However, no matter how large or small your firm may be, you’re all human and susceptible to making mistakes.

That’s why it’s imperative to include malpractice insurance as part of your company’s overall risk management plan. Malpractice insurance provides a layer of protection against potential lawsuits, whether brought fairly or not. It can help cover the costs of litigation and help pay a judgment if a case is decided against you.

There are many professions that rely on malpractice (also often referred to as errors and omissions) insurance. Here are but three industries that should always carry a policy.

1- Medical Professionals

As patients, when we visit a doctor’s office, outpatient facility, or hospital for medical care, we place our trust in the medical professionals who treat us. And those medical professionals have a standard or duty of care to provide us with the quality of care that would reasonably be expected in such situations.

For this reason, if a medical professional fails to diagnose an obvious health problem correctly, administers an incorrect medication or dosage, misreads lab results–or worse, operates on the wrong limb or leaves a sponge or medical device inside a patient, they could cause irreparable harm to that patient. Such negligence could open themselves up to a medical malpractice suit.

Depending on one’s medical specialty, medical malpractice insurance can be costly. But the risk of not carrying a policy could be much worse.

2- Legal Professionals

Clients rely on legal professionals to provide them with sage legal advice and good representation. In turn, attorneys and other legal professionals have a standard or duty of care to treat their clients as is reasonably expected in their profession. If they miss important deadlines, fail to serve documents, co-mingle their personal funds with their clients’, breach confidentiality, or fail to apply the law correctly, they could open themselves or their firm to a malpractice lawsuit.

Whether your firm is a single attorney practice or a large law firm with multiple attorneys, it is important to choose a reputable, financially stable, insurance provider with a strong track record serving the legal field.

3- Architectural and Design Professionals

Architecture and design professionals must also meet a standard or duty of care for their clients. They need to have a strong handle on the scope of their projects, the costs involved, and the timelines that should be met. And they should always keep communication lines open with their clients to avoid unwanted surprises.

As in the medical and legal fields, an error and omissions policy should be tailored to the types of suits that could occur in this field, which often revolve around structural failures that compromise the safety of people and property in a building the firm designs. This might include roofs or buildings that leak, the appearance of mold, drainage issues, foundation cracks, and more.

Protect Your Livelihood

Depending on the individual claims in a lawsuit, just one could be costly enough to bankrupt and destroy your business and everything you’ve worked hard for over the years. It could even impair your ability in the future to earn a living in your chosen field. That’s why a good malpractice policy is essential. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use it, but if you do, you’ll have both the protection you need and peace of mind.