When a Bad Outcome Is Not Psychiatric Malpractice: Separating Tragedy from Departure in New York

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Psychiatric Malpractice

A patient discharged from a psychiatric unit dies by suicide a week later. The grief is real and, in hindsight, the file looks damning. But a bad result is not a breach, and treating the two as the same is where many psychiatric malpractice theories quietly fail. Four links, not one outcome New York psychiatric malpractice is not a referendum on the result. The plaintiff must prove four distinct elements: a physician-patient duty, a departure from accepted practice, that the departure was a proximate cause of injury, and damages. Each is independent, and the worst outcome imaginable establishes none of them by itself. A clinician owes the patient reasonable care, not a guarantee of safety; a

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