Healthcare facilities are entrusted with the critical responsibility of ensuring patient safety and providing competent medical care. Unfortunately, lapses in care can lead to severe harm or even death, making hospital negligence a grave concern. In Philadelphia, hospital negligence lawyers play a pivotal role in holding hospitals accountable. Read on to understand the details of a hospital negligence case.
What Constitutes Hospital Negligence?
According to the American Hospital Association (AHA), hospitals are licensed institutions whose primary function is to provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient services for medical conditions. They have an organized physician staff and they provide continuous nursing services under the leadership and supervision of registered nurses.
Hospital negligence, also referred to as hospital malpractice, occurs when a healthcare facility as described above fails to meet the standard of care expected, resulting in harm to a patient. Hospital negligence is a type of medical malpractice.
Let’s assume you or your loved one suffered an injury during or after treatment at a hospital. How do you know that it was the result of hospital negligence? The answer is, you may not know. But a lawyer specialized in medical malpractice or hospital negligence will know. That is why it’s crucial that if you suffered an injury related to your treatment at a hospital, you contact a Philadelphia hospital negligence attorney right away to discuss your case.
Key Signs of Hospital Negligence
Your Philadelphia hospital malpractice lawyer will listen to your description of events and they might order your medical records to determine whether hospital malpractice occurred. The records may show a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. Or they may show improper prescriptions or failure to treat an emergency with the necessary promptness. There are some other key signs that hospital negligence occurred, such as the following limited list:
Inadequate staff or improperly trained staff. Are there enough staff members to cover all the shifts? Did you receive frequent nurse and healthcare provider visits, or did it seem that you were just one of several dozens of patients and your needs were not met? Inadequate staffing is not just about ensuring there is the right number of healthcare staff. It’s also about the quality of the staff who are there. If the staff are overworked, they will likely not be able to perform to the standard required. If the staff are underqualified, they will not be able to provide the level of care needed. And if the hospital fails to provide proper training for the staff – whether it’s training on equipment, machinery, patient care, etc. – then the staff are considered improperly trained and that is another way that staffing can be the basis for hospital malpractice.
Poor Communication: Miscommunication among staff can cause significant problems for the patient. If a member of the healthcare team cannot understand the notes left by a fellow team member, they could make a serious mistake that could compromise the patient’s care. Or if they fail to properly communicate with each other, the patient could be injured as the result of their miscommunication. Another example of miscommunication is between hospital staff and the patient. Sometimes staff harm the patient by failing to communicate to the patient necessary information as to the patient’s care.
Worsened Conditions. If a patient suffers harm or their condition deteriorates without explanation, it may indicate negligence. Sometimes, a patient is admitted to the hospital for one reason and ends up falling ill or getting injured by a new event. An example is a patient who enters the hospital for routine surgery and winds up with a serious staph infection, which could lead to sepsis and even death. In that case, the patient’s condition worsened likely due to inadequate wound care by hospital staff or unhygienic conditions in the hospital.
Failure to Follow Up. In some cases, the most important job of the doctor is to clearly communicate how the patient should engage in post-hospital care. What happens when the patient is discharged? What should the patient do to continue their recovery? Should the patient return at any point for follow-up care? Neglecting post-treatment care or follow-up can jeopardize patient recovery.
Recognizing these signs early can help victims and their lawyers take the necessary steps to hold hospitals accountable.
The Legal Process of Proving Hospital Negligence
Proving hospital negligence is a complex legal process requiring meticulous evidence collection and expert testimony. Your Philadelphia hospital negligence attorney will have to first establish a duty of care that the hospital owed you a certain level of treatment. Your malpractice attorney will then have to prove that that duty of care was breached. In other words, the hospital or its staff failed to meet the standard of care expected in similar circumstances. The hospital negligence lawyer will then need to prove that the hospital’s breach of duty caused your injuries. Injuries can include financial harm (like lost wages and costs of healthcare and rehabilitation) and emotional harm, like pain and suffering and loss of quality of life. In order to prove hospital negligence, it is likely that your hospital malpractice attorney will work with medical experts to establish that the hospital failed to meet the standard of care and that caused your injuries. Your attorney may also hire an expert to help analyze the extent of your economic losses, like lost wages and cost of care going forward.
Each of these steps requires a keen understanding of medical and legal principles, making the role of an experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney indispensable.
Why Experience Matters in Hospital Negligence Cases
Hospital negligence cases are complex. They require a thorough understanding of both medical practices and legal procedures. Your hospital negligence lawyer doesn’t have to have a medical degree, but they need to understand the pertinent medicine and medical procedures of your case. They need to have access to resources, such as a network of medical experts to consult and helpful legal staff to ensure that every aspect of your case is managed and handled appropriately. Your hospital negligence lawyer should have a track record of success. Ask them how many hospital negligence cases they handled and whether they were resolved favorably for the plaintiff. An experienced hospital negligence lawyer will also have significant experience conducting discovery, negotiating, and trying cases in court. Finding the right hospital negligence attorney, one with sufficient experience, can be the difference between a winning lawsuit and a losing one.
To find an experienced hospital negligence attorney to hold the hospital accountable and win your case, contact VSCP Law.
