Common Emergency Room Errors

When you go to the emergency room, you are entitled to expect that the health care providers that diagnose and treat you will abide by the professional standard of care applicable to the situation. Unfortunately, health care providers in ERs do make mistakes, and the consequences can be catastrophic injuries or even death. There are certain emergency room errors that are made more frequently when providers are under immense pressure, even at hospitals that are highly regarded. If you were harmed by any of the common emergency room errors, you should discuss your situation with an experienced Syracuse ER negligence lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano. We will use our considerable past trial experience to determine the best strategy to recover damages on your behalf.

Professional negligence happens in Upstate New York hospitals of all sizes. Common mistakes that depart from the professional standard of care include:

• Delayed diagnosis
• Failure to diagnose
• Diagnostic errors
• Wrongful diagnosis
• Failure to seek and get a complete medical history
• Triage errors
• Overlooking patient information provided when taking a medical history
• Failure to order the proper tests or imaging
• Medication errors
• Failure to follow proper protocols during an emergency surgery
• Delays in treatment
• Failure to give follow-up instructions with regard to at-home care or medication.

Any of these errors may constitute medical malpractice. For example, if your elderly mother’s ER nurses don’t conduct proper triage, they may miss that she needs a blood transfusion, and if she dies because no transfusion was performed, it may be appropriate for our attorneys to sue for wrongful death damages. For another example, if your ER nurse fails to accurately note your medications when taking your patient history and as a result you’re prescribed an emergency medication that adversely interacts with another long-term drug, causing you to get sicker, the nurse may have committed nursing malpractice.

To establish medical malpractice, we’ll need to prove it’s more likely than not: (1) you were owed a professional standard of care, (2) breach of the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. Our attorneys will consult an expert even before filing a lawsuit to determine what the professional standard of care was given the emergency situation and determine which parties should be brought into the lawsuit. The professional standard to which your doctor or other health care provider would be held depends on what a reasonably competent doctor in the same geographic region and specialty would have done when faced with a similar emergency situation. For instance, if a competent ER doctor would have taken certain steps, such as ordering lab tests based on your symptoms, we may be able to show your ER doctor departed from the professional standard of care by failing to do so.

Hospital liability can be complicated in Syracuse because multiple people may have fault. It can be difficult to figure out who to hold responsible for your injuries after common emergency room errors. Generally, a hospital that employs a doctor on staff can be held vicariously (indirectly) responsible for the employee doctor’s medical negligence. However, most doctors are not employees of hospitals where they work, and if that’s the case, vicarious liability will not be imposed by the court. There is an exception when you go to the emergency room to get treatment from whoever is working there, rather than from a doctor you chose. When a hospital has apparent authority over an ER doctor, however, it is possible to hold the hospital accountable for damages arising out of the ER doctor’s medical malpractice. You must have a reasonable belief that the ER doctor who treated you acted on behalf of the hospital while treating you in order to recover damages.

The seasoned Syracuse trial attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano have litigated on behalf of injured patients for 3 decades. Using our best efforts, we’ve won or settled cases, gaining awards of more than $100 million for our clients. As members of the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forums, our record of success precedes us in negotiations with health care providers and insurers. We represent clients in Auburn, Rochester, Elmira, Watertown, Oneida, Utica, Oswego, Lowville, Wampsville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Herkimer, Ithaca, Binghamton, and Cooperstown. Complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.