Do I Need a Lawyer for My Hospital Stay Injury?

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people rely on hospitals across the United States for medical care. These healthcare facilities are tasked with caring for people when they are at their most vulnerable. We trust hospitals to prioritize our well-being and care for us when we are injured or ill, but sometimes hospital stays can result in a complicated healthcare journey.

The unfortunate reality is that many patients leave the hospital with new injuries or health complications they didn’t have when they arrived. While some of these situations are beyond anyone’s control, there is no shortage of cases in which a patient’s hospital stay injuries occurred as the direct result of a facility’s negligence. In these cases, many patients and their families turn to medical malpractice lawyers to help them seek compensation while embarking upon their recovery journeys. Let’s cover everything patients should know about hospital stay injuries and discuss how an experienced medical malpractice attorney can help victims of hospital negligence seek the justice they deserve.

How common are hospital stay injuries?

 In a perfect world, a hospital would never cause unnecessary harm to anyone under its care. However, hospital stay injuries and illnesses are all too common within today’s healthcare system. While it is difficult to estimate exactly how many people suffer injuries or contract additional illnesses as the result of a hospital stay, one study conducted by the National Institute of Health found that roughly 30,000 deaths occur each year as the result of hospital stay injuries.

Additionally, research suggests that roughly 1 out of every 31 patients will contract an infection while hospitalized, and 1 in 4 patients on Medicare will experience injury, harm, or death during a hospital stay. These statistics underscore a harsh truth that many hospital patients have experienced firsthand: hospital stays can pose serious risks, especially for the most vulnerable members of our communities.

Common types of hospital stay injuries

As we’ve discussed, hospital stays come with a range of health risks, many of which become more pronounced the longer a patient remains in care. Here is a brief overview of some of the most common risks associated with extended stays in healthcare facilities:

• Surgical errors: Patients can incur injuries during surgery due to human errors, equipment malfunctions, and patient comorbidities (among other things). Mistakes in the operating room can pose serious risks to patients and result in the need for additional medical care and procedures down the line.
• Medication mistakes: If a patient receives an incorrect prescription or receives the wrong dosage of medication during a hospital stay, they can suffer a wide variety of adverse health effects that can have long-term consequences.
• Infections: Infections are incredibly common in healthcare settings and can occur in a myriad of different ways. Poorly maintained facilities can significantly increase the risk of infection within hospital settings, as can human negligence. For example, if a healthcare worker fails to regularly dress a patient’s surgical wounds, the patient could develop a life-threatening infection like sepsis.
• Illness: Hospitals are full of sick people, some of whom have communicable diseases. If a hospital does not utilize extreme caution in its cleaning protocols or in its use of personal protective equipment (PPE), patients are at an increased risk of contracting viruses and other contagious illnesses.
• Falls and physical injuries: Research suggests that as many as 1 million patient falls take place in U.S. hospitals each year. If a patient is not being properly monitored or otherwise supported, he or she may be at risk of falling within a healthcare setting. These falls can be incredibly dangerous, particularly for patients recovering from major illnesses or procedures, and can result in long-term injuries.
• Misdiagnosis: When patients are incorrectly diagnosed or receive improper treatments during a hospital stay, the care they receive can actually do more harm than good. Healthcare professionals have a duty to provide the best care possible to their patients, and misdiagnosis that occurs as the result of medical negligence can have a long-lasting impact on both a patient’s physical and mental health.

While it is nearly impossible to guarantee that mistakes will never be made and that unforeseen consequences will never rear their heads in healthcare settings, hospitals and their staff have a responsibility to do everything within their power to safeguard against the potentially dire consequences of hospital stay-related injuries and illnesses.

Do hospital injuries qualify as medical malpractice?

When a patient becomes sick or injured as a result of a hospital stay, the first question is often whether the hospital can be held responsible for the harm they experienced. Unfortunately, there is no black-and-white answer to this question, as every case is unique and occurs under unique conditions and circumstances. However, it is generally safe to assume that a hospital stay injury could be considered a form of medical malpractice if:

1. It is established that the hospital had a legal duty to care for a patient.
2. The patient suffered verifiable harm while under the care of the hospital or provider.
3. The harm suffered by the patient is directly attributable to the actions or inactions of the facility and/or its staff.

Malpractice, in these cases, can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. For example, one hospital injury that is far too common, given all of our advanced medical capabilities, is a phenomenon known as “retained surgical bodies,” or RSB. These are cases in which surgical instruments or other foreign bodies are left inside a patient after a surgical site is closed. While this may sound like an extreme example, research suggests that there are roughly 1,500 incidents of RSB in U.S. hospitals every year.

Using the guidelines listed above, medical malpractice could be established in an RCB case if it can be proven that:

1. The surgeon had a legal duty to exercise extreme care while performing surgery on a patient.
2. The patient left the surgery with a new and dangerous condition that caused them additional harm (such as an infection or pain as the result of the foreign body).
3. The harm suffered by the patient was the direct result of the surgical team’s failure to detect and remove the foreign body prior to closing.

While accidents do happen and there are many different variables associated with any medical treatment, if a patient can demonstrate that he or she experienced unnecessary, preventable harm at the hands of a medical provider or healthcare facility, it is likely time to contact a medical malpractice lawyer.

How a medical malpractice attorney can help

If you or a loved one have suffered an injury or illness as the direct result of a hospital stay, a medical malpractice attorney may be able to aid in your efforts to seek compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering or other damages. Attorneys like the experts at Nace Law Group work tirelessly to investigate incidents of medical malpractice and build an effective case against responsible parties.

The team at Nace Law Group has more than 40 years of experience fighting for personal injury victims, including victims of medical malpractice, and has well-established protocols for reviewing medical records, consulting experts, and arguing malpractice cases on behalf of injured patients. Not only can we help our clients determine who may be considered liable for their injuries, but we can also help clients calculate and document the financial impact of their hospital stay injuries in order to seek an appropriate resolution in court if necessary.

Our D.C. and West Virginia-based teams can help clients and their families secure compensation for a wide variety of damages, including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more, depending upon the unique specifications of their case. If you’re interested in learning more about how Nace Law Group can help people from all walks of life, seek justice for hospital stay injuries, or if you need help determining whether your case rises to the standard of medical malpractice, you can reach out to our team through this contact form or by calling our office at (202) 851-9899.