standard of care
Expected treatment quality
Standard of care is the level of competence and attention a reasonable professional would exercise in similar circumstances.
The term appears most often in medicine and law—a doctor who fails to meet the standard of care may be liable for malpractice.
The hospital's standard of care requires monitoring patients every four hours.
Beyond professional contexts, it can describe any expected baseline of responsible conduct.
Failure to exercise care
- malpracticeHarmful professional negligence
- liabilityLegal or financial obligation
- due diligencePre-transaction reasonable care
- breachBreaking of agreement
duty · tort · litigation · damages · plaintiff · defendant · reasonable person · foreseeability
Prescribed conduct rules
- treatmentCare for an ailment
- diagnosisIdentification of illness
- clinical guidelinesOfficial medical treatment recommendations
- best practicesProven effective methods
patient safety · prognosis · intervention · evidence-based · practitioner · specialist · referral · monitoring
Required moral task
- beneficenceActive desire to help
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- fiduciaryAgent bound by loyalty
- integrityMoral soundness and consistency
professionalism · accountability · confidentiality · compassion · respect · informed consent · patient rights · dignity
Outstanding quality or merit
- competenceAdequate ability to function
- proficiencySkilled performance level
- expertiseSkill from extensive practice
- precisionAccuracy of measurement
consistency · reliability · benchmarking · metrics · assessment · accreditation · certification · peer review
negligence
Failure to exercise care
- malpracticeHarmful professional negligence
- liabilityLegal or financial obligation
- due diligencePre-transaction reasonable care
breach · duty · tort · litigation · damages · plaintiff · defendant · reasonable person · foreseeability · causation
protocol
Prescribed conduct rules
- treatmentCare for an ailment
- diagnosisIdentification of illness
- clinical guidelinesOfficial medical treatment recommendations
best practices · patient safety · prognosis · intervention · evidence-based · practitioner · specialist · referral · monitoring · follow-up
duty
Required moral task
- beneficenceActive desire to help
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- fiduciaryAgent bound by loyalty
integrity · professionalism · accountability · confidentiality · compassion · respect · informed consent · patient rights · dignity · trust
excellence
Outstanding quality or merit
- competenceAdequate ability to function
- proficiencySkilled performance level
- expertiseSkill from extensive practice
precision · consistency · reliability · benchmarking · metrics · assessment · accreditation · certification · peer review · continuous improvement
- legal obligationstaxes, paying taxes, fines, debt, contract signing
- malpracticemalpractice, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, malpractice insurance, professional negligence
- medical lawmalpractice, medical liability, informed consent, medical licensing, medical negligence
- negligenceneglect, gross negligence, criminal negligence, medical negligence, negligence
- tort lawtort, tort law, negligence, breach of duty, causation
- tortstort, negligence, tortfeasor, torts, tort law
standard of caremalpractice
Harmful professional negligence
negligence · reckless disregard · below average · gross negligence · professional misconduct
standard of carebreach of duty
Failing an obligation owed
dereliction of duty · professional misconduct · medical negligence · gross negligence · malfeasance
standard of carefalling short
Not meeting expectations
inadequate · poor · deficient · excellence · best practices
care, standard, understand, understanding, standards, misunderstand, misunderstanding, standardize, standardized