Substandard Emergency Room Care

Emergency room physicians and staff deal with high pressure situations every day. Patients come into emergency rooms with serious injuries, and the staff needs to make quick assessments in order to save lives. The chaotic nature of the emergency room can lead emergency room personnel to make mistakes that result in substandard emergency room care.

If you or a loved one suffered injures due to a misdiagnosis or other negligent occurrence in an emergency room, you may be entitled to compensation.

Florida Emergency Room Negligence Attorneys

Emergency room errors are a common source of medical malpractice lawsuits. Usually emergency rooms are full of over worked staff and physicians without enough time to adequately diagnose each patient. However, the volume of patients and the long hours are not viable excuses to give patients negligent emergency room care. Contact the attorneys at Levine & Glassman if you or a loved one has sustained injury due to substandard emergency room care.

Emergency Room Negligence Information Center

• Types of Emergency Room Errors
• Types of Emergency Room Misdiagnosis
• Informed Consent
• How we can help

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Types of Emergency Room Errors

There are a number of errors that can happen in an emergency room, but there are some errors that frequently occur. The following errors happen on a regular basis and usually are the basis for medical malpractice lawsuits:

• Paramedic neglect or mistakes
• Delayed diagnosis
• Failure to diagnosis
• Surgical errors
• Blood Transfusion errors

Especially due to the emergency situation, doctors must make a quick diagnosis. Emergency room doctors are trained to be observant and make a diagnosis in order to give immediate medical care, but mistakes can happen. Usually it is a simple mistake like ordering the wrong blood type or making an error during an emergency surgery.

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Types of Emergency Room Misdiagnosis

Mistakes in diagnosing diseases and illnesses are common in the emergency room because a variety of different illnesses have the same symptoms. The rule of thumb is to go with the most common disease rather than the most obscure disease. Emergency room doctors do order tests and x-rays, but sometimes the patient’s condition starts to get worse before the test results come back and it is necessary for the doctor to act without the benefit of reviewing the test results.

Commonly misdiagnosed conditions include:

• Appendicitis
• Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction)
• Stroke
• Aneurysm
• Internal Bleeding
• Pulmonary Embolism

Misdiagnosis of any of the above conditions can lead to serious injury and even death of the patient.

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Informed Consent

Informed consent in the medical context means that the patient agrees to the treatment and the physician or healthcare professional has explained the risks and potential consequences of treatment. Informed consent is necessary was necessary historically to protect medical professionals from battery and assault charges. Today, informed consent is still necessary to make sure that a patient has all the necessary information to decide whether or not to submit to the treatment.

In an emergency situation, the patient might not be conscious or aware enough to give consent to the treatment. Under current Florida law, patients need to get enough emergency room care stabilize their condition regardless of consent. Due to the urgency of the situation, it might not be possible to gain informed consent from a patient. If there are no advanced directives such as a “Do Not Resuscitate” order, then the doctor has no choice but to treat the patient. Generally a medical malpractice lawsuit based on informed consent is not brought in an emergency situation.

Claims for negligently administered treatment are viable regardless of informed consent.

Levine & Glassman, P.A. – Florida Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Lawyers

The attorneys at Levine & Glassman have experience at evaluating and pursuing personal injury and medical malpractice claims brought on by substandard emergency room care in Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding areas of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Contact our firm at (954) 332-6100 or using out online contact form and one of our attorneys will evaluate your potential emergency room negligence case, explain the process of filing such a claim, and answer any other questions you may have.