Medical Malpractice FAQ: Can an emergency room error be considered medical malpractice?
Posted by Adam R. Leighton on Sep 23, 2019 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Medical Malpractice FAQ: Can an emergency room error be considered medical malpractice? Any emergency room in the U.S. can involve copious amounts of stress and emotions. These environments tend to be full of people who are suffering from mild to moderate, severe, or life threatening medical conditions. Staff in an emergency room will face life and death scenarios each and every day. These staff typically must have special ER training, and may need certain experience to work in the conditions. It will be up to them to make fast decisions with the intention to save the life of a patient who may be dying. As they are only human, they are not exempt from making errors. However, when the decision made by medical staff in an ER causes further harm or death, it may be possible to file a medical malpractice claim. To find out if you have grounds for a case, please consult a medical malpractice lawyer who handles ER cases. Errors in the Emergency Room As a leading medical malpractice lawyer, we know many cases involve ER errors, as well as, errors made during the diagnosis, treatment, and also surgery. Emergency room cases in particular are unique because the ER is naturally a stressful environment. Therefore, the likelihood of a staff member making a mistake in the ER is considerably high. In the U.S. at least 100 million people will visit the ER each year. Of these, between 5 and 10 percent will suffer from some kind of error. According to a review conducted by a medical malpractice insurer in the U.S., between 2007 and 2013, the most common errors made in emergency rooms were as follows: 57% involved failure to diagnose13% were a result of a failure to manage the patient’s care5% were from a poor execution of the patient’s careThe remainder were from the failure to order medication for the patient This review consisted of 332 claims that had been resolved, and were a result of ER errors. Staff Are Under Pressure in the Emergency Room According to research on emergency room errors, the frequency of these mistakes are high because of the amount of pressure staff endure. Many staff are rushing from one patient to the next, but even then, the average patient will have to wait at least one hour before being seen. This can easily lead to misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, or improper treatment. To add to this, many staff are overworked, stressed out,...read more