Louisville Emergency Room Error Lawyer

Emergency rooms are often frantic, high-stress environments where doctors and ER personnel are forced to make snap decisions in an effort to save the life of a critically ill or seriously injured patient.  Because of the nature of emergency situations, ERs generally have a higher rate of physician error than other health care settings.

If an error is the result of an emergency caregiver’s negligence, or if your level of care fell below an acceptable standard of care, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your injury. However, an emergency room mistake, injury, or death does not necessarily constitute medical malpractice.

If you or a loved one sought emergency medical care at Norton Hospital, Baptist Health, or University of Louisville Hospital, and you were injured or suffered the loss of a loved one through misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, medication error, or other emergency room mistake, contact a Louisville medical malpractice lawyer to discuss your case. For more information contact our personal injury lawyer.

Emergency Room Mistakes

Because of the risks involved in emergency care, emergency rooms and emergency personnel must adhere to strict procedures and protocols to avoid preventable errors. Emergency rooms should be adequately staffed, and personnel should closely follow patient tracking and record keeping procedures.

Facilities must be clean and sanitary, and medical equipment must be properly maintained. Injuries occurring from a facility’s failure to provide a safe environment may be considered the result of medical negligence, and injured patients may have adequate grounds for litigation. A Louisville lawyer handling emergency room errors can help.

Emergency room errors also occur from the practice of medicine itself. ER doctors and nurses are dedicated to providing medical care in crisis situations. Often, this care is administered with little or no patient medical history, and physicians rely on their best judgment in making medical decisions.

Common Emergency Room Errors

However, if this judgment fails to align with what any other physician would consider reasonable based on the information at hand, and a patient was harmed as a result, the error may be considered medical malpractice or medical negligence.

Common emergency room errors include:

• Missed diagnosis
• Misdiagnosis
• Medication error
• Surgical error
• Delayed treatment
• Incomplete patient evaluation
• Insufficient patient monitoring

Emergency room personnel should have adequate training to evaluate a patient and look for the root cause of common symptoms, as well as for possible causes less commonly associated with the presenting symptoms. It is the duty of the ER nurses and physicians to ensure that appropriate triage and diagnostic protocols are followed to give each patient the professional quality of care they deserve. If you feel there was negligence on the part of these nurses and physicians, an emergency room error attorney in Louisville may be able to help.

Talk To An Attorney Today

If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury or wrongful death, contact an experienced emergency room error injury lawyer in Louisville, KY to see if you have a case for pursuing a medical malpractice claim.

Not all bad medical results and not all emergency room errors are medical malpractice, but if your injury was the result of a doctor’s failure to apply a reasonable standard of care, you may be awarded a settlement or judgment to compensate you for your pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, lost earnings potential, funeral expenses, and more.