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Legal Support for Victims of Emergency Room Errors
An ambulance carrying a patient means a patient is in distress and on their way to the nearest emergency room. According to the Kentucky Hospital Association, 2,325,552 Kentucky residents made trips to ERs across the state. While the vast majority of these visits resulted in quality care, there have also been errors that resulted in health complications and, in extreme cases, fatalities.
When negligence in an emergency room causes harm, it can be considered a medical malpractice case. That’s your sign to call McCoy & Hiestand, PLC. An experienced Louisville emergency room error lawyer is here to help you and your family understand the options and challenges of filing medical malpractice.
Holding Negligent Emergency Room Staff Accountable
No matter your reason for going to the emergency room, you will encounter many administrative and medical professionals who contribute to your care. Meeting all of these staff members can be overwhelming, but it is important to identify who is responsible if something goes wrong.
An attending physician, fellow, resident, and intern could see you. The interns are the medical school graduates and first-year residents who require the most supervision. Unfortunately, their lack of experience can also cause errors that lead to complications. In the end, it is the attending physician who is on the shift who must sign off on all the treatments.
In addition to the doctors, you can also encounter the following personnel:
- Administrative assistant
- Certified nursing assistant (CNA)
- Charge nurse
- Emergency medical technician (EMT)
- Emergency room technician
- Laboratory technician
- Patient care technician
- Phlebotomist
- Physician assistant
- Receptionist
- Registered nurse (RN)
- Surgeon
- Trauma physician
- Triage nurse
- Unit secretary
These professionals take your medical history, share vitals, read test results, and are supposed to coordinate with the emergency room team. That requires them to be alert and focused throughout their shift. It also demonstrates that one break in that chain of support can lead to complications.
Common Emergency Room & Department Errors
There is no such thing as an empty emergency room. There can be a slow night, but there will always be several patients requiring different levels of care. Some of those patients might be in a code blue situation, which is a life-threatening medical emergency like cardiac arrest. That is a lot of movement. It also increases the risk of things being overlooked, and some of these mistakes may be drastic enough to lead to a medical malpractice claim.
Here is what could go wrong in the ER:
Missed Diagnosis or Wrong Diagnosis
Missed or wrong diagnoses are among the most common emergency room errors. This can happen if one of the doctors does not take the time to run the correct tests or to examine the test closely. This type of error can result in serious complications.
Medication Errors
An overworked staff member could prescribe the wrong medication dosage to a patient or deliver the wrong medication, which can have catastrophic consequences.
Delayed Treatment
You expect a certain amount of risk going into an emergency room because you don’t know what is happening with other patients. A busy shift could also have you sitting in the waiting room. The ER staff is supposed to perform triage to prioritize the patients who need immediate care the most. Even with that attention, a shortage of beds or strained staff can lead to delayed treatment, resulting in even more complications.
Early Discharge
In an effort to move patients along, a doctor could discharge a patient despite warning signs of a serious illness. That discharge can exacerbate the ailment and lead to a return trip to the ER.
Several conditions and illnesses are more prone to ER errors. These conditions can include the following:
- Appendicitis
- Meningitis
- Heart attack
- Aneurysm
- Stroke
- Infection
- Head injuries
- Orthopedic injuries
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Do You Have a Case for Emergency Department Malpractice?
If you or someone in your family has suffered an emergency room error leading to further harm, you might wonder about your options. To hold a medical professional or hospital liable for a medical malpractice claim, you need to establish these elements:
- The medical professional is an employee of the hospital
- The hospital fails to inform patients that a caregiver has privileges but is not an employee
- The hospital employs incompetent staff
- The hospital has outdated or inappropriate rules and regulations that led to the injury
A hospital is typically liable for the actions of its staff. However, some scenarios exist where a staff member could be an independent contractor or a travel nurse/doctor. In that situation, the hospital could claim since that person is not an employee, they can’t be held liable for their actions. Of course, this could be a defense your Louisville emergency room error lawyer can challenge.
You will also have to provide proof of your injury. That can mean presenting copies of the original ER records and the records of an independent doctor not affiliated with the hospital.
You also have to file your case within one year of the incident. That is the statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice claim in Kentucky.
These are the issues that you can discuss with your medical malpractice attorney.
Why Choose Us as Your Louisville Emergency Room Error Lawyer
How much is your medical malpractice case worth? In Kentucky, there are no caps on the amount you can recover from your malpractice lawsuit. If you choose to work with the McCoy & Hiestand, PLC team, we’ll thoroughly evaluate all of your economic and noneconomic damages. There could also be punitive damages involved that can increase the final amount.
These options can be discussed at your first consultation with our Louisville emergency room error lawyer. That is when you can get answers to your questions about your claim, the costs, and the possible compensation. The only way to move forward is by making a well-informed decision.
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