Standard of care is the legal benchmark for the conduct expected of physicians, nurses, and other regulated health professionals in Ontario. It is the first of the three elements a plaintiff must prove in a medical malpractice claim, and it is almost always proven or defended through the evidence of qualified medical experts.
Posts tagged Standard of Care analyze how Ontario courts have applied the test in specific cases, how expert evidence is used to define what a reasonable practitioner would have done in the circumstances, and where the standard is contested between specialties. The library covers obstetrical, emergency, surgical, anesthetic, and primary care decisions, along with appellate rulings that shape how trial courts approach the question.
For patients considering a claim, these case comments offer a sense of what Ontario courts have treated as a departure from the standard of care and what they have not.
A settlement on behalf of a patient diagnosed with terminal metastatic cancer based on imaging alone, who lived for an extended period under a wrong diagnosis.
Ontario court awards over $1 million to nurse with chronic shoulder injury from improper tetanus injection by family medicine resident at SOC trial.
Ontario mid-trial ruling adopts but-for phrasing for jury causation questions in delayed diagnosis aneurysm case but declines to require jurors to give reasons.
Ontario court dismisses orthopaedic malpractice claim after finding hip replacement subsidence was osteointegration failure, a recognized complication, not negligence.
New Brunswick court holds anesthesiologist negligent in death of 36-year-old patient with severe obesity and sepsis after spinal anesthesia choice and management.
Ontario Superior Court dismisses fatal aortic dissection claim against internist and ED physician. The standards of care for mild aortic dilation and hypertensive chest pain.
Ontario Superior Court finds gynecologic surgeon liable for unrecognized intraoperative bowel injury. The duty to inspect framework in laparoscopic surgery.
A settlement on behalf of a patient discharged from hospital despite signs of acute psychiatric illness, who suffered catastrophic injury within 24 hours.
Ontario Superior Court dismisses post-operative osteomyelitis claim. The hospitalist standard of care, patient-declined treatment, and the pre-existing infection defence.
Ontario Superior Court finds pediatric neurologists negligent for delayed pyridoxine treatment in PDE. The low-risk alternative framework and twin sister causation.
Alberta King’s Bench dismisses critical care malpractice claim. Standard of care breached on echocardiography timing, but causation defeated by temporal mismatch.
The BC Supreme Court dismisses a missed-appendicitis claim. Normal ultrasound, documented differential diagnosis, and the anchoring bias allegation rejected.
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