Patients visit healthcare facilities for care and treatment. Unfortunately, they sometimes compound one’s woes. Some end up feeling sicker than they were before visiting the hospital.
When a hospital worsens your health condition through negligence, you can seek damages. You can only file for compensation if they failed to offer you the expected services and are responsible for your pain and losses. Medical malpractice attorney Russell Berkowitz of Berkowitz Hanna Malpractice & Injury Lawyers can help those in need of legal aid.
This article highlights how you can sue a hospital for medical malpractice:
When to Sue a Healthcare Facility for Medical Malpractice
You can sue a hospital when they offer you or a loved one medical care that falls below standard. Such unacceptable medical care can cause avoidable injuries. Your specific case or situation will determine the theory under which you can sue a hospital.
You can sue a hospital when they make severe medical errors while treating you, leading to your injury or death (your estate will sue them for wrongful death). For instance, you can sue a hospital for a delayed or hastened operation, wrong diagnosis, or misinterpretation of laboratory results.
To sue a hospital, you need to prove that they owed you a duty of care that they breached or failed to uphold. The facility violated this care directly or based on their employee’s negligence. Instances of direct medical facility negligence include a dearth of adequate staff to meet the needs of their patients, leaking patient confidential information, and allowing a physician with a valid medical license to treat patients.
Suing a Hospital for a Physician’s Errors
You can sue a healthcare facility for its employees’ errors. This is referred to as “vicarious liability.” The hospital is directly responsible for its employees’ actions. Examples of these actions include a botched surgical procedure and birth injuries.
However, the facility may not be liable if the physician works on a floating or contract basis. This does not foreclose your ability to hold hospitals responsible in this context. Your medical malpractice attorney will guide you on the options available.
Physicians and other medical practitioners who act negligently when treating patients are the leading defendants in a healthcare facility lawsuit. Most often, the hospital is merely a co-defendant. Your lawyer will guide you on when to sue a hospital or its staff members.
The Ways to Sue a Healthcare Facility
Medical malpractice is the most typical avenue of suing a healthcare facility. Medical malpractice is when a physician deviates from the standard of conduct when treating a patient, injuring the patient in the process. You can accuse any medical professional who negligently treats or provides care for malpractice.
While the facility, as their employer, will also face liability, the authorities will hold the responsible professional to a higher standard of care based on their education and training.
Furthermore, you can initiate a hospital or common negligence theory against a healthcare facility. Discrimination, product liability, and wrongful death are the other theories you can use to sue a healthcare facility.
Your attorney will guide you on the available causes of action against a facility in your jurisdiction. Ultimately, your case’s merits will determine your claim’s validity.
The Steps to Take When You Want to Sue a Hospital
Before deciding to sue a medical facility, check if your insurance policy or that of the hospital has any special requirements. For instance, some healthcare providers demand that an individual suing a hospital for negligence submit to compulsory arbitration. In other words, you cannot institute a civil suit until you go through a compulsory arbitration.
By this, the case will appear before an arbitrator – a neutral party – who will listen to both sides, evaluate the evidence, and attempt to resolve your differences. If you cannot resolve the issue through arbitration, you can still go ahead to file a civil lawsuit.
It is pertinent to emphasize that mandatory arbitration is not a general requirement. You can decide to ignore it and file a claim against the at-fault hospital. With this, you will stick to the conventional process of instituting a lawsuit, which includes filing a complaint, serving the concerned parties, and dealing with the motion to dismiss that the defendant(s) may bring.
The case will then proceed to litigation and trial. However, you can decide to settle the case out of court at any stage of the litigation.
The Need to Act Promptly
If you feel a healthcare facility acted negligently and injured you, you need to act promptly if you want to hold them responsible for their actions. You must file a lawsuit against an at-fault party within two years of your accident in Connecticut.
However, there is also the discovery phase. This is the period where it is logically acceptable that you were not aware of the existence of the harm. Instead of believing you have all the time to file your suit, speak with a local medical malpractice attorney to help you calculate the timing and ideal timeline to institute your case.
You will lose the opportunity to hold the hospital accountable once your timeline passes, regardless of the merits of your case. Involve an attorney if you do not know how the timing works.
The Legal Solutions in a Healthcare Facility Lawsuit
If you can prove your claim with evidence, the court will award you economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are easily quantifiable losses or injuries. They include medical bills, immobility, lost earnings, and ongoing rehabilitation.
Conversely, non-economic damages are not easily quantifiable. Instances include pain and suffering, loss of consortium, emotional trauma, and loss of companionship.
In rare cases, the court may award punitive damages, especially when the harm is severe and willful. It will serve as a deterrent to others.
Why You Need an Attorney to Sue a Hospital
Taking on a healthcare facility on your own is inadvisable. The legal battle will be exhausting, and you might not get anything out of it. However, the outcome can differ when you engage a Connecticut medical malpractice attorney.
Collaboration with legal counsel to acquire evidence against the hospital is recommended. The attorney will help you scout for reputable professional witnesses to corroborate your story. They will also defend your rights and ensure the defendant does not exploit you.
A hospital is an institution, a wealthy one that a layperson can hardly defeat in a legal battle. Thus, take a backseat and allow a legal professional to handle the process.
