When you are sick or injured and need immediate care, going to the hospital is your best choice. The doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals form a care team to treat you adequately and efficiently so that you can get onto the path of recovery as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, any member of that team can make a mistake that harms you more than it helps you. When multiple members of that team make preventable mistakes, then you could look to the hospital as a whole to recover financial damages.
You shouldn’t leave a hospital worse-off than when you entered. You deserve care that meets the standards set, and when that doesn’t happen, you deserve compensation for the injuries and damages you suffered. A Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer from Shrager, Sachs, & Blanco, LLC can offer you legal support that ensures you can recover financially from this injustice so you can focus on recovering physically and emotionally from your experience.
When to Sue A Hospital for Medical Malpractice
When you have suffered from medical negligence at the hand of a healthcare worker at a hospital, you might think that you can only hold that person accountable. However, there are some reasons why you could hold the hospital, as an entity, accountable for your injuries. Medical malpractice cases require you to prove negligence, so when you can prove multiple people from the hospital are responsible for your injuries, then you could have a case against the entire hospital on your hands.
Hospitals and their employees are expected to give you treatment that meets or exceeds the standard of care, and when that doesn’t happen, you can suffer further injuries at the fault of the hospital. Here are some examples of when a hospital is liable for malpractice:
- The doctor or nurse who was negligent is an employee of the hospital, not contracted out.
- More than one person on the medical team was responsible for the error or errors that caused you harm.
- An administrative error directly led to your injury.
- Any hospital staff member negligently performed a task assigned by their supervisor or did not meet the standard of care.
Suing the hospital as an entity might seem like a large endeavor, but as a place that solely exists to care for patients who need treatment, they should be held responsible for medical negligence when it occurs on a larger scale than just one doctor’s mistake. On a positive note, holding the hospital as a whole accountable for their negligence helps ensure that future patients will receive better care than you experienced.
Example of a Hospital Being Held Liable for Malpractice
In 1991, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that hospitals and their parent corporations can be held liable for medical negligence in the case Thompson v. Nason Hospital. This case established direct liability against hospitals for the hospital’s negligence in Pennsylvania by ruling in favor of Thompson, the patient who experienced medical negligence. Our late founder, David Shrager, was one of the lawyers who argued and won the case for Thompson.
In this case, the patient was brought to the emergency room of Nason Hospital after a car accident that caused her head and leg injuries. Her husband informed the doctors and staff that she was on blood thinners, other heart medications, and had a permanent pacemaker. The medical team failed to properly monitor her injuries and treat her while considering her pre-existing conditions. Because of their negligence, the patient was eventually discharged with her entire left side paralyzed.
If her doctor and team had been more proactive in treating her and catering her treatments to her pre-existing conditions rather than neglecting to seek the proper help from specialists, she might not have suffered paralysis of the left side of her body. These doctors did not meet the standard of care, and it left their patient unnecessarily paralyzed. This is when a medical malpractice lawyer comes into play—they can help a patient get justice for a doctor’s medical negligence.
Shrager, Sachs, & Blanco Knows How to Fight For Your Medical Rights
If none of the situations above reflect your experiences at a hospital, but you experienced negligence that caused you damage, then you could still have a medical malpractice case against the hospital that mistreated you. At Shrager, Sachs, & Blanco in Philadelphia, we have experience in fighting against medical negligence—our founder was an essential part of the case above that got justice for a victim of medical negligence by a hospital.
We know that when doctors and other medical professionals make mistakes, the toll it takes on you and your family is more than just physical—the effects could be emotional and financial as well. A medical malpractice lawyer from our firm will help you fight for financial compensation for your injuries so that you can turn your attention to physical and emotional healing for you and your family. Reach out to our office today so that we can discuss how we can help you through this hard time.
