Laws vary from state to state, but the elements of a health care liability claim for medical malpractice or medical negligence are generally:

• a physician or health care provider is a defendant;

• the claim or claims at issue concern treatment, lack of treatment, or a departure from accepted standards of medical care or health care, or safety, professional, or administrative services directly related to health care;

• the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care;

• the defendant breached its duty of care by not meeting the required standard of care; and

• the defendant’s act or omission proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury (was the primary cause of the injury).

In Oklahoma, medical malpractice claims are governed by the Oklahoma Medical Liability Act. Under this Act, a health care liability claim arises when a patient alleges that a physician or health care provider has failed to provide the appropriate standard of medical care, resulting in injury or harm to the patient. The elements of such a claim in Oklahoma include: (1) the existence of a physician-patient or health care provider-patient relationship, establishing a duty of care; (2) a breach of the standard of care by the health care provider; (3) a causal connection between the breach of care and the harm suffered by the patient; and (4) damages resulting from the injury. The standard of care is typically based on what a reasonably competent health care professional would do under similar circumstances. To succeed in a medical malpractice claim in Oklahoma, the plaintiff must prove all these elements by a preponderance of the evidence. Additionally, Oklahoma law requires an affidavit of merit to be filed with the court alongside the claim, in which a qualified expert attests to the merit of the case.