Abstract

Introduction. When a person loses health, she entrusts herself to health workers for quick recovery to full health. There occur medical errors, punished differently through time. Growing number of patients’ claims and recent law changes forces health professionals to diligently study medical law. Aim. This research was aimed to assess physiotherapists’ knowledge and opinions about recent changes in medical law. Also, existence of statistically important correlation between answers and respondents’ characteristics was determined. Methods. Custom survey form was used, consisting of questions about knowledge and opinions about recent changes in medical law, together with questions about sociodemographic characteristics. The survey was conducted on a group of 101 physiotherapists. Results. Most of the respondents knew medical workers’ law better than patients’ and poorly knew specific Penalty Code articles concerning their profession. The majority of sociodemographic characteristics were correlated with physiotherapists’ opinions and answers. Summary. It is justified to implement additional education programs for physiotherapists about actual medical law and the penal code in order to provide better protection of patients’ and medical workers’ interests.

Key words:

physiotherapists, medical law, Anti-crisis shield, medical errors