Reasons Why Emergency Room Errors Happen

Picture an emergency room at a hospital. It can be scary, tense, dramatic, and stressful—almost like a storm. We’ve seen them in our favorite movies, TV shows, and we might even have had the unfortunate experience of seeing one for ourselves. Emergency rooms in hospitals are without a doubt the most stressful and demanding work sites in the healthcare profession.

We all know that the standard of care in United States hospitals is of very high quality. Surgeons, doctors, nurses and all the other healthcare experts take pride in this.

However, even with state-of-the-art technology, medications, and practices, malpractice is still a very common occurrence in the medical profession—the majority of them occurring in emergency rooms.

Roughly 225,000 people die every year due to medical malpractice related injuries and almost half of these deaths are from ER errors.

Furthermore, here are some examples of emergency room errors that have gone wrong—and lead to medical malpractice cases.

1. Medication Error – Failure to administer antibiotics to a patient with a fracture.

Emergency rooms see patients who come in with broken bones and fractures daily. These are very common injuries and are often treated pretty easily. However, the biggest concern health care providers have for these patients is preventing infections. As a result, physicians prescribe antibiotics to prevent infections. But, sadly this is where many medical provides also go wrong and make a mistake.

2. Treatment Error – Failure to provide the right airways for patients.

Securing and establishing an airway should be the first step performed by all emergency rooms. However, this step—while it seems obvious to most medical providers—also involves special equipment, such as a bag and mask or a nasal or oral tracheal intubation. Since many emergency rooms are understaffed, there may be a shortage of this equipment or it may not be properly set up, resulting in patient harm or even death.

Emergency rooms can be scary—but medical malpractice can even scarier. If you think you have been the victim of an emergency room error or you think you have a medical malpractice claim, then don’t hesitate to contact a medical malpractice attorney Jacksonville Florida.

Call the attorneys at Hardesty, Tyde, Green, Ashton & Clifton at (904) 414-4906 to find out your legal options. We offer free case evaluations. Call us today to see how we can help you.

Also Read :

• 4 Exclusive Reasons for Emergency Room Errors
• Temporary Staff in Emergency Rooms Leads to More Medical Malpractice
• The Most Common Medical Errors