Emergency Room Negligence Lawyers – Hospital Malpractice Attorneys
The high volume of patients, often in critical condition, and chronic staff shortages often plague hospital emergency rooms, creating an environment that is ripe for errors. A Harvard study of more than 30,000 randomly selected hospital records found that hospital emergency departments have the highest proportion of adverse events due to negligence than any other area of the hospital. Most common were diagnostic errors or mishaps in treatment, largely due to part-time, inexperienced physicians and staff.
Rapid and specific treatment is essential for a patient in a hospital emergency room. Depending on the condition, an emergency room physician may be required to refer the patient immediately to a specialist. In the emergency room, time is of the essence. Some conditions that result in long term pain, disability or death could have been prevented by prompt and competent action by the ER staff and doctors.
Some of the most common types of emergency room errors are the following:
- Failure to fully evaluate or treat a patient’s condition
- Late or wrong diagnosis
- Faulty laboratory tests
- Contaminated blood transfusions
- Prescribing wrong medication
- Failure to monitor a patient, especially confused patients
In the medical field, when a doctor or health care professional agrees to diagnose or treat a patient, he or she has assumed a duty of care toward that patient. The health care provider may not be the doctor, nurse or a member of the staff. It is possible that the individual is a lab or x-ray technician with certain qualifications for operating advanced medical equipment or interpreting results of tests.
Unfortunately, some doctors cause harm through their mistakes, ignorance, negligence, lack of skill and misdiagnosis. Medical malpractice is the result of a health care provider’s failure to provide the expected standard of care.
Emergency Room Negligence and Medical malpractice claims are difficult areas of litigation, since the negligent action must be documented and proven within specific guidelines. Only a skilled emergency room negligence lawyer or medical malpractice attorney has the experience and resources to thoroughly investigate and validate your case.
If you would like to speak with an emergency room negligence attorney and have your situation reviewed at no charge, and with no obligation, please complete the form below. Your information will be transmitted securely and privately to an experienced lawyer for an initial claim evaluation.
