Emergency room treatment often involves a life-threatening event, and in some cases a patient’s life cannot be saved. However, this does not excuse malpractice or substandard treatment resulting in injury or death. Although it is almost impossible to pursue criminal charges if you have lost a loved one due to errors in the emergency room, you may be entitled to compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit .
Causes of emergency room error
In the fast paced, high stress environment of emergency rooms errors can easily occur. Doctors and staff see patients whom they know nothing about and can never predict the situations that they will be dealing with next. However, implementing and following strict policies and procedures can greatly reduce the chance of error and keep things running smoothly. Fatal emergency room errors are often the result of hospital negligence or wrongdoing including:
· Understaffing
· Inadequate training
· Poor record keeping procedures
· Poor patient tracking procedures
· Unsanitary conditions
· Unethical or illegal intake and treatment policies
· Inadequate medication administration procedures
· Inadequate facilities and/or equipment
Deadly errors in the emergency room
Common emergency room errors leading to wrongful death include:
· Failure to fully evaluate a patient
· Diagnostic error
· Surgical errors
· Failure to monitor a patient
· Partial treatment
· Delayed treatment
· Refusal to treat
· Medication errors
Medication errors
Even in a minor emergency, medication errors can be deadly. Fatal medication errors in emergency rooms can include:
· Allergic reactions
· Administration to the wrong patient
· Wrong prescription for the condition
· Misread prescription or label leading to administration of the wrong medication or wrong dose
· Overdose
· Drug interactions
· Administration of pain medication to patients who are intoxicated
Diagnostic errors
Diagnostic errors can lead to a patient being given the wrong treatment or to a patient being sent home with an untreated, life-threatening condition, which worsens or repeats, causing death. Conditions which are often misdiagnosed include:
· Heart attack
· Stroke
· Brain injury
· Pulmonary embolism
· Appendicitis
· Pancreatitis
Unethical and illegal intake procedures
Legally, an emergency room cannot require a patient to prove his or her ability to pay before providing emergency care. However, many hospitals break or bend these laws, allowing patients to die. Hospitals have many ways of shirking their responsibility to stabilize patients needing emergency care including:
· Refusing to examine or provide any treatment without proof of insurance
· Delaying treatment for an unreasonable amount of time
· Sending the patient to a different hospital
· Providing partial, but inadequate treatment
Unsanitary conditions
Emergency room staff and doctors must act quickly to save lives, but that does not justify neglecting sanitation. Unsanitary conditions can cause transmission of diseases between patients or infection of a wound or surgical site.
