In a medical crisis, patients turn to the emergency room for time-sensitive care. Emergency room providers have a duty to triage patients appropriately so they can diagnose and treat patients in an emergency. If improper ER treatment injures you further, or if emergency room providers fail to make a diagnosis, and you suffer harm as a result, it can lead to devastating medical, emotional, and financial consequences. If you or someone you care about has been harmed from receiving inappropriate or inadequate treatment in the emergency room, and you are seeking answers and compensation, our medical malpractice attorneys can help. Contact us today to speak to an experienced St. Louis emergency room error lawyer.
Not every error made in an emergency room meets the definition of medical malpractice. The threshold for medical malpractice is met when your treatment falls below the standard of care that other medical professionals with the same level of expertise would have provided under similar circumstances.
Attorneys experienced in handling emergency room mistakes in St. Louis can help you establish whether medical malpractice has occurred and support you in pursuing a claim for compensation.
Emergency rooms must provide urgent care in stressful situations and have protocols in place to ensure that providers meet the standard of care. When ER workers do not follow these protocols, errors can occur. These may be the result of various factors, such as:
The lawyers at Zevan Murphy can help injured St. Louis patients seek compensation for preventable ER errors.
Some injuries or illnesses, when misdiagnosed or not recognized in the emergency room, can lead to you suffering further harm. Common examples include:
If you suffered injuries due to an emergency room error – whether minor or severe – work with our lawyers in St. Louis to hold your provider accountable.
To bring a successful emergency room error claim, St. Louis attorneys need to demonstrate that a medical professional in the emergency ward or the facility itself failed to meet their responsibilities regarding your treatment. You are owed a duty of care, and when an emergency room fails to meet the standard, it can result in an injury for which you are entitled to make a legal claim.
An important element of your claim is identifying the losses you experience as a result of an injury. These losses include medical bills, lost wages, and future medical care needs. Failure to investigate all economic damages can limit your compensation, and our attorneys take into consideration that medical expenses incurred as a result of an emergency room error can extend far into the future.
Non-economic losses include the physical and emotional pain and suffering you endure as a result of the emergency room error. These can far exceed your economic losses, but they can be difficult to assess. We have a team of skilled lawyers who will use their experience to advocate for fair compensation for all non-economic damages.
Our attorneys will pursue all available compensation – both economic and non-economic damages – to ensure that you are fully compensated for your losses.
The most common emergency room errors include:
The standard of care is not necessarily different in an emergency room, but there are important considerations for cases involving care in the ER. In an emergency room, doctors and nurses have to triage patients according to their severity. As any patient who has been to an emergency department knows, sometimes you have to wait a long time to be seen by a doctor. Those delays are acceptable if there are patients with more urgent needs. Emergency room doctors must treat emergent conditions, but if a condition is not an emergency, it may be acceptable to send the patient home and recommend treatment elsewhere. Even for emergent conditions, patient volume and available resources may determine whether necessary treatment can be provided in a timely manner.
Yes. If your condition was not triaged appropriately, and your condition worsened as a result, you may be able to file a lawsuit. Certain conditions, such as chest pain/suspected heart attack, and suspected stroke, have well-understood treatment timelines and guidelines that emergency rooms must follow. Doctors and hospitals who fail to follow those guidelines may be held responsible if a patient suffers damages.
The doctor, the hospital, and other providers are all potentially responsible, depending upon the circumstances. Negligence could be due to the responsibility of just one physician or nurse, or it could be a system problem. An experienced malpractice attorney understands how to review medical records and assess responsibility based on the facts of each case.
EMTALA is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. EMTALA applies to hospitals that accept Medicare (nearly all hospitals). Under EMTALA, if a patient presents to the emergency room, the hospital and healthcare providers must determine whether an emergency medical condition exists, and if so, they must stabilize the patient even if the patient is not able to pay for their medical care. If you are turned away from an emergency room and you have an emergency, the hospital may be in violation of EMTALA. An attorney can sue for these violations on your behalf, and you can make a complaint to the federal government, which could result in penalties for the hospital.
If you were sent home too early, you may be able to sue for malpractice. This is a very fact-specific question. If your care is not an emergency, it may be appropriate for the ER physician to send you home. However, if your care is an emergency but the ER doctor does not recognize it, then the ER doctor may be responsible if you get worse after you are sent home.
Communication breakdowns and system errors can be a basis for a medical malpractice claim. In these cases, there are generally multiple defendants.
Yes. As with any medical malpractice claim, an expert witness must support your claim and testify that the involved healthcare providers were negligent.
“Hindsight bias” related to medical care provided is when you look at the care provided with the benefit of knowing what happened later. When assessing whether health care providers were negligent, the reviewing expert witness should put themselves in the shoes of the health care providers at the time of the care provided.
It depends on a few factors, such as which state you were in and which state the doctor was in when the potential malpractice occurred. Timing is important because different states have different deadlines (called statute of limitations) for how long you have to file an injury claim. You should contact a lawyer as soon as possible if you think you may have a claim, because waiting to act could prohibit you from being able to recover compensation.
If you went to the ER seeking treatment and instead sustained a further injury, a reputable St. Louis emergency room error lawyer at Zevan Murphy, LLC, can help. We will work hard to build a strong claim on your behalf and skillfully pursue an outcome that supports your health and well-being. Call us today for more information.