Did you know there are approximately 130 million visits to the emergency room each year?
Generally, emergency rooms are fast-paced environments where patients’ lives are often at risk. And with lives on the line, poor decisions can lead to severe consequences. Thus, nurses and doctors risk exacerbating a condition or causing more problems. These unfortunate situations put a medical professional in peril of medical malpractice law.
You may be eligible for medical malpractice recovery after an emergency room visit has gone wrong. That said, this is not a catch-all law that applies to every situation.
Let’s take a look at medical malpractice in the ER, and whether you can be compensated under this law.
What Is Medical Malpractice Law?
First, it’s important to make clear that medical malpractice is not a simple mistake. Mistakes happen, but they are under an entirely different legal umbrella.
Malpractice refers to harm caused by a medical professional’s negligent actions. These can result from administering the wrong care or failing to administer the right care. Yet, negligence often results from ignoring procedures or failing to take precautions.
Here are a few important guidelines for qualifying true medical malpractice:
- Duty of care: you turned to the responsible medical professional for professional care and treatment
- Breach in the duty of care: your treatment is insufficient by professional standards, making it a breach of duty
- Harm occurs: misconduct by your provider either created a new injury or exacerbated an existing one
- Resulting damages: you suffer losses or expenses after this situation
All this depends primarily on one thing: the standard level of care.
Understanding Standard of Care
In fact, the standard of care is an agreed-upon, accepted bar of professional care. So, anything less than this agreed-upon standard is medical malpractice.
Every situation has different ways that a medical professional should administer care.
Of course, healthcare as a whole is a complicated field. There are many different disciplines with their own respective standards. Therefore, ERs are especially complicated and create unique difficulties.
The Challenge With Emergency Rooms
Emergency rooms treat injuries of all kinds. And, they treat these injuries on a triage basis. Practitioners without specialized training may have to deal with a crisis situation.
Actually, emergency room personnel often work under extreme pressure. Thus, forcing them to make tough decisions without adequate time to consider all the risks. An environment like this is ripe for mistakes from well-meaning individuals.
In short, it can be difficult to determine if your provider failed to meet the standard of care. In some cases, courts may side with the healthcare provider.
Further, it can be difficult to assign blame. A medical professional may have acted in what they assumed to be proper protocol. However, the medical institution’s poor guidance led to malpractice.
People usually won’t win medical malpractice cases with evidence of an injury alone. You will need to assemble several different forms of evidence to prove it. This might include the following:
- Getting detailed records of the treatment and involved parties
- Gathering evidence before and after of how the condition got worse
- Bringing in an expert to give their take on the field related to your care
- Citing journals or textbooks that outline an ER’s standard of care
- Using published medical guidelines that are the accepted norms for the practice
- A skilled legal expert who can argue why your case is malpractice
Errors in the Emergency Room that May Constitute Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice generally falls into four categories. These are not the only situations that one should consider medical malpractice.
- Medical misdiagnosis: your medical professional gives an incomplete or wrong diagnosis
- Errors in treatment: your medical professional causes harm by delaying treatment or giving the wrong treatment
- Errors in communication: your medical professional does not convey correct and complete information to you, or to someone who is treating you
- Premature emergency room discharge: your medical professional released you from ER care too early
Consult a Lawyer for Medical Malpractice Before You File a Claim
If you believe that you are a victim of medical malpractice after reading this article, it’s time to file a claim. Otherwise, you may not be able to get the compensation you deserve. Compensation may even include things like lost wages.
Of course, this is a difficult case to prove alone. The medical industry in the United States is, on the whole, a for-profit venture. Like any other company, they don’t care about your well-being if it cuts into their profits.
Do not assume that the medical professional or your provider will do the right thing and pay for damages after medical malpractice.
Most likely, they will bury the claim in a fruitless internal investigation. This investigation will likely give them a favorable result without liability. Or, they may redirect you to your insurance provider to have them deal with the cost.
A lawyer for medical malpractice is a no-brainer when it comes to fighting a medical malpractice case. They know the intricacies of medical malpractice law. They know what forms of evidence hold the greatest sway on the judge, and they have years of experience with these cases.
Find a Lawyer for Your Medical Malpractice Case
Medical malpractice law makes clear what is an honest mistake and what is negligence. This distinction is hard to make, resulting in many difficulties in fighting medical malpractice cases. A medical malpractice lawyer will get you the compensation that you require.
RHINO Lawyers specialize in personal injury claims and medical malpractice. Our medical malpractice attorneys would be more than happy to fight your case and make sure you get the most favorable outcome. You can get a free case review here and determine whether your situation qualifies as medical malpractice.
CONTACT A TAMPA Medical Malpractice ATTORNEY
In short, if you believe you’re a victim of medical malpractice, you may not know your rights. Above all, don’t struggle through the process alone. Actually, our personal injury team is here to help you with any legal needs you might have regarding your case.
Lastly, let RHINO Lawyers answer your questions and review the facts of your case with a Free Consultation. So, get started by completing the “Free Instant Case Evaluation” or by calling us any time, day or night, at 844.RHINO.77.
