Patient safety is an issue which in recent years has grown to prominence in a number of countries’ political and health service agendas. The World Health Organisation has launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety. Millions of patients, according to the Alliance, endure prolonged ill-health, disability and death caused by unreliable practices, services, and poor health care environments. At any given time 1.4 million people worldwide are suffering from an infection acquired in a health facility. Patient Safety, Law Policy and Practice explores the impact of legal systems on patient safety initiatives. It asks whether legal systems are being used in appropriate ways to support state and local managerial systems in developing patient safety procedures, and what alternative approaches can and should be utilized. The chapters in this collection explore the patient safety managerial structures that exist in countries where there is a developed patient safety infrastructure and culture. The legal structures of these countries are explored and related to major in-country patient safety issues such as consent to treatment protocols and guidelines, complaint handling, adverse incident reporting systems, and civil litigation systems, in order to draw comparisons and conclusions on patient safety.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this book provides ready access to how the legal dimension of prevention against harm and loss allocation is treated in Germany. This traditional branch of law not only tackles questions which concern every lawyer, whatever his legal expertise, but also concerns each person’s most fundamental rights on a worldwide scale. Following a general introduction that probes the distinction between tort and crime and the relationship between tort and contract, the monograph describes how the concepts of fault and unlawfulness, and of duty of care and negligence, are dealt with in both the legislature and the courts. The book then proceeds to cover specific cases of liability, such as professional liability, liability of public bodies, abuse of rights, injury to reputation and privacy, vicarious liability, liability of parents and teachers, liability for handicapped persons, product liability, environmental liability, and liability connected with road and traffic accidents. Principles of causation, grounds of justification, limitations on recovery, assessment of damages and compensation, and the role of private insurance and social security are all closely considered. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable resource for lawyers in Germany. Academics and researchers will also welcome this very useful guide, and will appreciate its value not only as a contribution to comparative law but also as a stimulus to harmonization of the rules on tort. The Authors List of Abbreviations General Introducti

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this book provides ready access to how the legal dimension of prevention against harm and loss allocation is treated in Germany. This traditional branch of law not only tackles questions which concern every lawyer, whatever his legal expertise, but also concerns each person’s most fundamental rights on a worldwide scale. Following a general introduction that probes the distinction between tort and crime and the relationship between tort and contract, the monograph describes how the concepts of fault and unlawfulness, and of duty of care and negligence, are dealt with in both the legislature and the courts. The book then proceeds to cover specific cases of liability, such as professional liability, liability of public bodies, abuse of rights, injury to reputation and privacy, vicarious liability, liability of parents and teachers, liability for handicapped persons, product liability, environmental liability, and liability connected with road and traffic accidents. Principles of causation, grounds of justification, limitations on recovery, assessment of damages and compensation, and the role of private insurance and social security are all closely considered. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable resource for lawyers in Germany. Academics and researchers will also welcome this very useful guide, and will appreciate its value not only as a contribution to comparative law but also as a stimulus to harmonization of the rules on tort.

This new work adds to the theoretical understanding and discussion of possible solutions to various conceptual and practical problems that arise within the field of medical negligence - an area whose legal treatment is perceived, both in England and Germany, as containing a number of special difficulties and shortcomings. In addition it seeks to make a contribution to the developing field of comparative law, by employing a detailed and closely focused analytical approach in a tightly defined subject area. These twin aims serve to reveal the similarities and differences between two legal cultures in a particularly clear and striking way. The book offers an analysis which is neutral as between the English and German approaches. The issues are dealt with thematically so far as possible, so that the respective treatments in each country of a given matter, eg the standard of care owed by medical practitioners, are discussed side-by-side. The book thus avoids the 'country-report' style, whereby the systems are presented largely separately from each other. What is of particular interest is how, notwithstanding their common starting point in terms of the application of the fault-principle under private law, the detailed rules in the two countries differ markedly. This is true both in the divergent way that claims are structured and argued, and also quite often as regards their substantive outcome. It will be of interest to comparative lawyers, tort and medical lawyers, and practising lawyers working in these areas.

In diesem ersten deutschsprachigen Werk zum Thema zeigt der Autor, wie Komplikationen vor, während und nach Koronarinterventionen vermieden und gehandhabt werden können. Der Facharzt (Innere Medizin und Kardiologe) und Leitende Notarzt hat ein Buch für den Einsatz in der Praxis geschrieben und sich dabei an den Leitlinien der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie orientiert.

With contributions by numerous experts