Emergency Room Malpractice

Millions of Americans place their lives in the hands of strangers every year, when they require emergency care, but few know that nearly half of all medical malpractice injuries are caused in emergency rooms. A trip to the emergency room is not a choice, and patients do not have the opportunity to research and evaluate the quality of care that they will receive.

Emergency room malpractice causes
Emergency rooms are often over crowded and understaffed. They are high stress environments, where doctors and staff have to respond quickly to a wide variety of unpredictable life and death situations, and often care for patients who they have never treated before.

Hospitals have a duty to make emergency rooms as safe and efficient as possible, minimizing the risk of error by implementing and enforcing strict policies, and properly screening and training doctors and staff. Emergency room errors are often the result of hospital negligence or wrongdoing including:
• Failure to maintain an adequate number of doctors and support staff per shift
• Failure to screen doctors and support staff
• Inadequate training
• Inadequate facilities
• Unsanitary conditions
• Inadequate patient tracking procedures
• Inadequate record keeping procedures
• Inadequate medication administration procedures
• Unethical policies (such as patient dumping and discrimination)

Emergency room errors
These and other poor practices lead to common emergency room errors including:
• Failure to fully evaluate a patient
• Misdiagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Failure to diagnose
• Laboratory errors
• Failure to monitor a patient
• Patient dumping
• Failure to fully treat a patient
• Delayed treatment
• Inappropriate medications or improper doses
• Contaminated blood transfusions
• Surgical errors
• Negligence

Injuries caused by emergency room malpractice
Emergency room errors inevitably lead to injury, often permanent injury, and sometimes death. What may start out as a minor medical emergency can end in tragedy. Injuries caused in the emergency room may or may not be related to the underlying condition which prompted the emergency room visit. Common emergency room injuries include:
• Medication overdose
• Adverse reaction to medications
• Infections
• Second, more harmful occurrence of misdiagnosed medical event (such as a heart attack or stroke)
• Loss of limbs or organs
• Severe pain
• Brain injury
• Paralysis
• Extended recovery time
• Permanent disability
• Death

Compensation for emergency room malpractice
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed by emergency room malpractice, you may be entitled to compensation including:
• Current and future medical bills
• Current and future loss of wages
• Long-term disability
• Long-term care expenses
• Rehabilitation
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of companionship
• Burial expenses