Overcrowded hospital emergency rooms have become an enormous problem, forcing patients who are in need of medical attention to wait long amounts of time for the medical help they desperately require. Patients may be kept waiting for hours, while their medical problems condition to get worse.
Overcrowded emergency rooms can lead to medical negligence, especially if patients who require immediate medical care are not taken care of, or if the overcrowding forces medical staff to rush patients through the process, therefore misdiagnosing the patients or failing to diagnose serious medical problems. If this misdiagnosis causes a patient's condition to go from serious to severe, or the patient dies, the hospital or medical staff may be liable for medical negligence.
Patients in overcrowded emergency rooms may first be kept waiting for a long period of time, and then when they are finally admitted to the hospital, must still wait a long period of time for a bed to be made available. The patient may be sent back to the hallway while the medical staff rushes from patient to patient. Finally, when the patient gets a bed, they must wait for a nurse to arrive, then a doctor. Meanwhile the patient's condition continues to deteriorate. We see a lot more problems these days and cases of medical negligence due to the overcrowding of emergency rooms. This also creates a strain on the medical staff as the hospital personnel may be overworked and tired. If there is a shortage of medical staff, the situation becomes even worse and the likelihood of medical negligence increases.
Examples of hospital negligence or hospital malpractice related to overcrowded emergency rooms:
- Patients who are left waiting too long while their medical conditions worsen
- Nursing or doctor medical errors
- Failure of the medical staff to diagnose the medical condition of the patient
- Misdiagnosis of the medical condition
- Medication errors
- Surgical errors
It is important to understand that proving a doctor, nurse, or hospital was negligent in a medical malpractice case can be very complicated, especially for an inexperienced attorney who does not understand medical malpractice cases or how an emergency room functions. In order to win the case or obtain the highest settlement, the attorney must be able to prove the connection between the negligent care and the injury or death to the patient. This is where having the legal and medical expertise of an attorney and physician such as Dr. Bruce Fagel is critical to winning the case or obtaining the maximum settlement.
