When you think of medical malpractice, you often times think about the doctors that are the ones that have been negligent. However, there are more than just doctors who are covered on the term medical malpractice. Any professional that works in your care is considered a part of the medical team and when someone doesn’t do their job, then that is medical malpractice. This can include nurses, hospitals, and even pharmacies.
Hospitals
Hospitals are often times over loaded and under staffed. This can lead to some negligence for whatever reason and when this happens, you want someone to take responsibility for this lack of care. The staff at a hospital consists of nurses, doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioner, and other staff. While in the midst of a hiring process, the hospital will look into an applicant’s credentials to determine if they are eligible to work at the position they are applying for. A hospital will not intentionally hire someone they feel could put the patients in danger. However, often times it happens for whatever reason. In addition to hiring a wrong person, there are other ways that hospitals can be held liable for any type of injury that occurs, while staying:
• Care was not received as expected/ required
• Employees that fail to follow the orders of the physician in a patients plan of care
• Employees fail to question a treatment plan that they deem unnecessary or inappropriate
• Any situation where an employee acts negligent.
Independent Contractor Exceptions
There are times when the hospital cannot be held responsible, for an injury and that is when they hire physicians that are considered independent contractors. They are not considered employees of the hospital and therefore the hospital is not held liable for their conduct. However, it is important to check with your lawyer and see if the individual doctor can be sued. There might be other ways of doing that.
Pharmaceutical Company Liability
There are times when a drug that was prescribed to a patient can lead to injury and when this happens, the pharmaceutical company can be held liable, as long as they did not warn the doctors of possible side effects of a particular drug. If the drug company notifies the doctor and there is an injury as a result of an individual taking a medicine, then the pharmaceutical company cannot be held liable for that patient’s injury. The doctor would be held liable instead. When you feel like you have a case for medical malpractice, contact an injury lawyer in Milton, who specializes in this type of case. It is important to check the track record and experience of the lawyer, before you hire them.