What You Should Know About Medical Malpractice In The ER

Medical malpractice can occur anywhere you seek medical attention, including negligence from a doctor or surgeon, the nursing staff, administrative staff, and the staff working in an emergency room. If you recently had a bad experience while visiting the ER that you believe contributed to the severity of your illness or injury, you may be able to sue for medical malpractice. Here is more information on this type of lawsuit.

Learn Who is Liable

One of the most confusing things about a medical malpractice suit occurring in the emergency room is who exactly is liable. You may speak to or get help from several people, including the ambulance or first responder, triage nurse, administrative staff, and check-in nurse. Typically, the very first person who responded to your emergency is going to be the primary person who is sued during a medical malpractice case. Of course, this may vary depending on what happened between the time you entered the emergency room and the time of the incident. A lot of emergency room malpractice cases are considered medical negligence.

Some Personnel Has Extra Protection

Due to the nature of their job, some first responders have better malpractice protection than typical hospital staff, nurses and doctors. This includes paramedics, firefighters, ambulance crew, and emergency medical technicians. If they weren't adequately protected, there would be a lot more lawsuits due to an illness or injury getting worse and the assumption that the first responder didn't do enough. However, in a lot of these cases, it is hard to prove that the first responder was responsible for medical malpractice or medical negligence.

Nurses and Doctors Can Be Sued

While first responders might have a lot of protection, nurses in doctors in the ER are treated the same way in all medical facilities. That means normal medical malpractice and medical negligence rules apply to them. If your triage nurse failed to check your blood pressure, and it turned out you were having a heart attack or something serious happened after being told to wait in the waiting room, this is a good reason to sue for medical malpractice. With a high blood pressure, the nurse should have known you needed immediate attention.

The Hospital Can Be Sued

Not only can employees be sued during a medical malpractice case, but the hospital can as well. Typically, nurses, doctors and hospital staff are well protected by the hospital, but you can sue the hospital for negligence. If you become more ill or your injury got severe because of the long wait time, you can sue the hospital for being understaffed. If it was something that couldn't be helped, that may not be a case. But if they purposely don't have enough staff to save money, you should definitely contact a personal injury lawyer (like those at Parker & Frey).

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