Philadelphia Emergency Room Error Lawyer

Emergency rooms save countless lives every year, and the men and women who deliver the highest level of care in life-and-death situations deserve to be commended. But when some doctors, nurses, and other emergency room staff fail to live up to standard expectations, the consequences can be disastrous.

Emergency room errors are as diverse as the situations that patients and doctors face. From incorrect diagnoses to mixing up prescriptions, an error can occur at any step along the way. In short, if your health is compromised while in the care of emergency room staff, you may have a medical malpractice case.

The best way to learn about your rights and options after being injured due to an emergency room error is to speak with our Philadelphia ER malpractice attorneys at Golomb Legal.

Most Common Emergency Room Errors

Our ER malpractice lawyers are familiar with all types of medical malpractice that can unfold in the emergency room and how to use convincing evidence to prove it. If you were hurt in the emergency room, and you believe a medical provider’s mistakes were the cause, then we want to hear from you.

Some of the most common emergency room errors are:

• Failure to check patient’s medical records: Even in a busy emergency room, there is no excuse for haste. Every patient who enters should have their medical records checked as soon as possible and before conducting any treatments if time allows for it, i.e., the patient’s life is not in imminent danger. Failing to check medical records will increase the risk of harm due to an adverse reaction to treatment, like an allergic reaction to certain medicines or a new injury suffered in routine surgery.
• Inefficient order of triage: Emergency rooms need to carefully decide which patient will receive medical attention next. The order of triage can save lives and prevent the worsening of critical symptoms when done correctly. On the other hand, prioritizing a patient who is in a relatively stable condition over a patient who needs help immediately can be extremely dangerous. If ER records show that triage was completed in an unreasonable order, then it could constitute medical malpractice.
• Surgery errors: Patients who are rushed into the operating theater still deserve the best treatments and care from their surgeons. All sorts of surgery errors can occur when carefulness and acceptable standards of medical care are set aside. For example, there could be wrong-site surgeries, foreign objects left inside a patient, and so on.
• Medication mix-ups: Most emergency room treatments are paired with some sort of medication to be taken as part of aftercare instructions. For example, people who undergo surgery are usually prescribed some sort of painkiller to take for a few days or weeks while the surgical site heals. Pharmaceutical errors like prescribing the wrong medicine or unsafe dosage amounts can do more harm than good.
• Insufficient diagnostic tests: After initial treatments in the emergency room, or before they begin if the patient is in stable condition, diagnostic tests can be ordered to better understand the patient’s symptoms. Failing to order appropriate diagnostic tests that another medical professional reasonably would have ordered in the same situation is a form of medical malpractice that can be met with a claim or lawsuit if that failure leads to a patient’s injury or worsened illness.

The ER's Duty

Emergency rooms are chaotic and unpredictable, and patients who enter the ER are in life-and-death situations. That's why ER physicians are highly trained and accept as part of the job that they have a duty to provide the highest level of care possible.

When you are admitted to the emergency room, you are establishing a doctor-patient relationship. Implicit in this agreement is the understanding that doctors have a duty to act in your best interests and make decisions that conform to established standards of care.

A standard of care is simply a consensus among medical professionals as to how one should perform his or her job under given circumstances. While there's no authoritative "rule book" on every possible situation, experts in the field can offer testimony to determine a suitable standard for your case.

ER Breaches of Duty

Given that the ER has a duty to act in your best interests, and given an established standard of care, obtaining a successful medical malpractice verdict means demonstrating that emergency room staff breached their duty to provide adequate care. This usually involves expert witnesses who testify that protocols were breached and that the defendant acted carelessly.

Piecing together the specific sequence of events that caused the breach can be exceptionally complex and may require extensive research. That's why it pays to retain our emergency room error attorneys at Golomb Legalas soon as possible.

Did you suffer damages due to breach of duty?

Finally, the medical professionals' breach of their duties must cause harm to the patient. While you might first think of physical injury, "harm" is a broad term and encompasses such damages as pain and suffering, lost wages, and loss of the ability to enjoy one's life. It also includes your medical costs and any additional treatments needed to correct the ER's negligence.

Medical malpractice cases are bound by certain statutes of limitations, so if you've been the victim of emergency room negligence, don't wait until it's too late to consult with the attorneys at Golomb Legal.