While serious, even fatal mistakes occur in emergency rooms and ambulances, it is much harder to prove medical malpractice in an emergency situation than in other medical settings. Paramedics, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and other such first responders have enormous legal protection, enabling them to do their lifesaving work without fear of lawsuit. Doctors and nurses, on the other hand, do not have the same kind of legal safeguard. And even if an emergency responder acts with utter recklessness, then they too could be found liable for medical malpractice.

The likelihood of proving that medical malpractice occurred in an ambulance is far more difficult to do than to say that a medical professional committed negligence in an emergency room. Of course, such high pressure situations increase the likelihood of mistakes that even a reasonably competent doctor or nurse would commit. An expert would have to say that a medical professional did something that no competent doctor would have done "under the same circumstances".

If you can prove medical malpractice, then who is liable? If the doctor is the one who was negligent, then chances are, he or she is not a hospital employee but an independent contractor; the doctor would be the one facing a suit. The hospital is liable for its employees, however, such as a nurse or technician. An independent contractor doctor could still be considered a hospital employee if the patient thinks that the doctor is an employee; in the ER there is not the usual amount of time to notify someone that a doctor is an independent contractor. In this case, the hospital would still be liable for the doctor's actions in the ER. There are even some states where the hospital will be liable whether or not the doctor is considered to be an employee.

Getting Turned away from an Emergency Room

Almost every single hospital you come across is funded in part by Medicare, and this means that there are federal laws that have to be upheld. This includes the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). This law states that no one can be refused treatment in an emergency room; it should not matter whether they will be able to pay or not. Such emergency rooms have to give a medical screening for the patient and stabilize their condition as well as they can. If medical professionals in the ER fail to do so, then this could open up the hospital to a lawsuit. The hospital would be liable even in the event that a hurt person is sent to a different emergency room without being treated at that site first. If the injured person could afford the treatment and was refused medical help, the hospital would still be liable too.

What about off-duty medical professionals?

If say, an off-duty doctor saw an accident and was able to help, the doctor would not be subject to medical malpractice laws. An off-duty medical professional would come under the Good Samaritan Rule. This states that people who provide emergency help cannot be reckless, and they cannot unnecessarily risk the safety of anyone they help. But then there is the case of an injured person who has a preexisting doctor-patient relationship with the physician who comes to his aid. In this instance, an off-duty doctor would still actually be held to malpractice statutes.

As you can see, liability hinges on a great deal of factors, and this is only a general overview of emergency malpractice. Each state can have its own laws on the matter too. In order to find answers about your specific case, do not wait to contact a medical malpractice attorney today.