​Hammond Medical Malpractice Attorney

One study revealed that medical errors had become the third-leading cause of death among Americans. In fact, they are an under-recognized cause of death resulting in 10 percent of all deaths in the United States. Considering that doctors and other medical care providers are supposed to do no harm, these are incredibly concerning statistics.

But not every mistake someone with a nursing or medical license makes is medical malpractice. If the medical professional’s actions fall below the accepted medical standard of care concerning the specific circumstances and cause harm to the patient, it is medical malpractice. The standard of care describes the type of care a similarly-skilled medical professional should provide to a patient in the same or similar situation.

For instance, depending on the circumstances, sending a patient home from the hospital too soon can be medical malpractice. Sometimes physicians prematurely discharge patients based on incomplete information because they didn’t take another course of action.

Causes of improper hospital patient discharge include:

• Failure to perform adequate testing
• Failure to refer the patient to a specialist when a doctor exhausts their expertise in a certain field
• Misdiagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis

Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, other healthcare professionals, or a hospital causes an injury to a patient, whether by a negligent act or an omission. When a medical care facility, provider, or professional’s performance departs from a standard of practice of those with similar training and experience and harms a patient or patients, there is likely a valid claim for medical malpractice.

To constitute medical malpractice, the claim must include:

• A breach of the standard of care: Patients expect their healthcare professionals to provide care consistent with specific standards. If the professional failed to meet the standard of care, your attorney can establish negligence.
• The negligence resulted in injury: The injured patient must also show they suffered an injury that would not have occurred without their provider’s negligence. An undesirable outcome by itself isn’t medical malpractice. Therefore, the patient must establish that the healthcare provider’s negligence caused the injury.
• The injury resulted in substantial damages: Expensive medical malpractice litigation frequently requires the testimony of multiple medical experts and innumerable hours of deposition testimony. The patient must show that significant damages resulted from their injury caused by medical negligence. Otherwise, the cost of pursuing the case might exceed the recovery. In a valid medical malpractice claim, the injured patient must show that the injury caused a disability, unusual pain, suffering and hardship, loss of income, or significant past and future medical bills.

Patients who believe their injuries result from medical malpractice should discuss their case with an experienced Hammond medical malpractice attorney.

Hospital malpractice is medical malpractice that occurs within a hospital setting. In general, hospitals are liable for the actions of their employees. For example, if one of their employees breaches the standard of care, leading to a patient injury, both the employee and the hospital can be named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by the patient’s hospital malpractice attorney.

Liability for Hospital Malpractice

Under the legal premise of respondeat superior, a hospital can be responsible when one of its employees faces a lawsuit for medical malpractice while acting within the scope of their job description. Usually, staff such as nurses, nurses assistants, hospital technicians, and support staff are hospital employees. However, not all doctors are hospital employees but rather contracted with the hospital to provide care.

Hospitals are not usually liable for the actions of contracted staff. In fact, depending on the circumstances, if an employee acted under the supervision of a contracted physician who controlled the patient’s care, the hospital might not be liable for the malpractice.

The hospital might employee the doctor if:

• The hospital dictates the doctor’s working hours and vacation time
• The hospital determines the fees the doctor can charge

When you hire a Hammond medical malpractice attorney from our firm to represent your case, we will determine who can be held liable for the damages you suffer due to hospital negligence.