Hospital/Physician Negligence
Doctors are among the most trusted and well-respected professionals, and rightly so. The extensive knowledge and years of training that doctors posses enable them to perform preventative and life-saving treatments for their patients.
Unfortunately, doctors do not always fulfill their duties and sometimes fail their patients. Through poor judgment, hastiness, carelessness, misconduct, or some other form of negligence, doctors sometimes harm patients, causing needless injuries and death.
Physician negligence can take many forms and occur under many different circumstances. Common forms of physician negligence include: anesthesia errors, misdiagnoses of or failure to diagnose a condition, prescription errors, surgical errors, and birth injury (e.g., cerebral palsy).
Hospitals bear the responsibility of hiring and overseeing qualified medical professionals who will care for patients according to acceptable standards of care. When a doctor, nurse, technician, or other hospital staff member fails to exercise the care necessary to avoid needless patient injury, the hospital may be liable for malpractice.
Common hospital mistakes include: failure to consult with a specialist, failure to monitor a patient, failure to order proper diagnostic tests, failure to stabilize a patient, failure to sufficiently staff the hospital, improper use of medical device equipment, laboratory delays in processing specimens or loss of specimens, poorly equipped facilities, preventable infection or contamination, procedures done without patient consent or when not necessary, prescription errors, and use of defective medical devices.
Because there are so many variables involved in the way disease and injury can affect the body, ill and injured patients cannot always be successfully treated; many acceptable treatments fail to cure disease or prevent injury or death from occurring. So when physicians and hospital staff cannot successfully treat a patient, the failure is not necessarily grounds for a malpractice claim. When malpractice has occurred, however, victims are entitled to compensation for medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, diminished earning capacity, lost income, and other costs and losses.
Lawsuits that hold physicians and hospitals accountable for their negligence do more that help victims recover their lives —they help keep our communities safe by making sure that the medical care we all receive meets minimal quality standards.
If you’ve been injured because physician or hospital negligent, you need an attorney to evaluate your case and protect you and your community from future danger.
Contact Siegfried & Jensen today for a free consultation. We’re here for you.
