Medical errors can lead to more serious and damaging repercussions than most people think. Whether the medical errors committed are intentional or unintentional, compensation is due to the victim.
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. In a study conducted on 179,000 participants, more than 98,000 of them reported that they had been at the receiving end of a medical error at least once in their life.
What are medical errors?
A medical error may be defined as an act of commission or omission of the standard protocols in patient care, or a negligent breach of duty on part of the healthcare provider. It also includes a failure to adhere by your professional duties in providing care.
The above definition was proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which, in their seminal report “To Err is Human,” estimated around 98,000 patients in American hospitals die each year from preventable medical errors.
Fatigue, poor communication, inadequate training, and lack of team coordination, are all causes of why these errors occur.
What options do you have as the victim of a medical error?
You can pursue the following options if you have been at the receiving end of medical error:
Gather evidence
This may include copies of your medical records, witness statements, photos and videos of personal injuries, and documentation of income losses.
If your employer was negligent of their corporate responsibility and didn’t inform you of the risks involved in working at a certain site, then you can hold them accountable for a breach of their corporate responsibility and negligence.
Certain professionals are made to work under hazardous conditions, like having to handle asbestos-laced products and materials. You are well within your rights to seek the legal compensation option for such flagrant disregards of corporate responsibility.
Seek an expert’s opinion
A qualified expert will be able to review your case, determine whether negligence was involved, and explain how the error could have negatively impacted your health. A judge or a jury is more likely to believe the testimony of an independent expert, who holds no stake in the outcome of the case, than they are to believe the testimony of the doctors, who are employed by the healthcare facility which is under review.
File a claim quickly
Every state has a certain time limit after the medical error’s occurrence for filing the medical malpractice claim. If you wait too long to file for a claim, you could lose your right of seeking compensation for the medical errors committed. The statute of limitations—as the allowable period for filing a claim is known—varies by state and type of injury sustained.
How common are medical errors in the United States?
No one expects to visit a doctor or hospital and come out with newer complications to show for. Unfortunately, medical errors make this into a more common reality than you would believe.
In fact, medical errors are so common that they’re one of the leading causes of death in the United States —to be exact, the third-leading cause of death, right behind heart disease and cancer.
If you, or any one of your loved ones, have had to suffer injury due to a medical error, you may be considering filing a lawsuit.
Here’s what you need to do to win your case:
Prove that there was an error
You’ll need to prove that someone (either by action or inaction) committed an error in providing care. It’s not enough to prove your injury; Medical staff’s negligence must be proven as well.
In determining negligence, you could seek an expert opinion as to how standard medical protocols work, and how they might have been neglected to have caused the injury.
It should be demonstrated that the medical error did cause harm. In addition, it has to be proven that harm sustained was due to and as a result of the error. For example, if you were given too much medication and suffered an allergic reaction because of it, not only do you have to prove that an overdose had occurred but also that it led directly to a deterioration in your health.
Statistics of medical malpractice are alarmingly high
A 2012 study published in the Journal of Patient Safety estimated that as many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable harm that occurs during hospital stays.
Despite these statistics, it can be difficult for the victims of medical errors and their families to get compensated for their injuries.
Why? One reason is that proving who or what error was made is difficult to pinpoint. Another reason is that healthcare professionals and facilities have strong legal teams on retainer. In case of a claim of negligence against them, they can easily mobilize the best legal minds in the country and deny the victim any compensatory amount.
The hospitals have to fight off such claims not because they are unable to pay the victims their compensations but because the claims put their credibility as a trusted healthcare providers at stake.
By gathering sufficient evidence, you can prove the facility at fault, no matter how much backing they may have. So, in order to ensure your success, you need to prepare well and gather every piece of record you can possibly get your hands on.
Conclusion
Many medical malpractice cases can be resolved by letting an insurance adjuster get a better offer on your behalf. However, their offer is time-bound, and you’ll have to accept it within a certain time, or the offer could be taken off the table. You can reject the offer if you are not happy with, it and ask your attorney to pursue the lawsuit in a court of law.
Here, you have to weigh the cost of pursuing the case versus the expected amount you could get once the verdict is announced in your favor. Keep in mind that it usually takes several years for a medical malpractice case to clear from the courts, and even then a favorable verdict cannot be guaranteed.