Emergency Room Errors
The life-threatening nature of emergency room visits can mask
the act that injuries or death may have been caused by medical
malpractice in the emergency room. In fact, emergency room errors
are so common that many patients and their loved ones do not
even realize that mistakes in the emergency room constitute medical
malpractice rather than standard procedure.
Hospital Negligence
Emergency rooms are a rushed, high-stress atmosphere for doctors
and staff. Some patients cannot be saved. However, hospitals
have a duty to minimize the risks, eliminate causes of errors,
maintain a sanitary environment, and
Hospital negligence that leads to emergency room errors includes:
- Illegal or unethical policies leading to patient dumping,
refusal to treat, incomplete, or delayed treatment
- Inadequate record keeping procedures
- Inadequate patient tracking procedures
- Inadequate medication administration procedures
- Poor screening and hiring practices
- Too few doctors or staff members on duty
- Inadequate training
- Unsanitary conditions
- Inadequate facilities and equipment
Common Emergency Room Errors
Even under the best conditions some emergency room patients
will not survive the ordeal. However, many patients die or suffer
avoidable harm due to errors such as:
- Failure to fully evaluate
- Failure to monitor
- Failure to fully treat
- Delayed treatment
- Refusal to treat
- Failure to diagnose
- Delayed diagnosis
- Misdiagnosis
- Medication errors - inappropriate medication, wrong dose,
wrong patient
- Surgical errors
- Laboratory errors
- Nosocomial infection
- Contaminated blood transfusions
Diagnostic Errors and Delayed Treatment
Failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis of health events such
as heart attack, stroke, or brain injury can result in extensive
unnecessary harm or death. Patients may be sent home untreated
or may not receive treatment until irreversible damage occurs
that could have been stopped in its tracks.
For instance, stroke patients have a chance of recovery and
a good outcome if treated within the first few hours after symptoms
appear. As time passes the most effective drugs are no longer
useful, damage to the brain continues to spread, and recovery
become less and less likely. Misdiagnosed heart attack victims
are often sent home untreated only to suffer a more severe, and
often fatal, heart attack within a few hours or a few days.
These types of injury can be the result of failure to fully
evaluate, delayed treatment, or misdiagnosis.
What You Need To Know:
Insurance companies' obligations are to their stockholders and
policy holders, not to the people injured by their insured's
negligence. Insurance companies' desire to maximize their own
profits provides them with every motivation to try to deny your
claim or pay you the very minimum amount that they can get away
with. The insurance companies also have enormous advantages:
they have immense wealth, armies of experienced adjusters and
lawyers and years of experience reducing and denying claims.
At the Law Office of Stephen A. Burroughs,
our only obligation is to you, our client. We will use our experience
and every resource available to protect your interests, and we
will work hard to help you receive the full value for your case.
We will advise you every step of the way to help you avoid any
mistakes that could cost you money. There is no charge for attorney's
fees until you recover money for your personal injuries, and
we will also help you resolve your property damage claims for
no fee whatsoever. For assistance, call today at 1-877-300-3773, contact
us or submit
an free online case evaluation.
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