Featured News 2013 Who is Liable: The Hospital vs. The Doctor

Who is Liable: The Hospital vs. The Doctor

If you are injured in a medical malpractice situation, you will need to determine whether you are going to target the hospital for the incident or if you are going to target one doctor in particular. Normally, hospitals can be held responsible for incompetent care provided by the employees of the hospital. This includes paramedics, nurses, technicians, and others that are employed and paid by the hospital. Doctors are not typically hospital employees, so they are held liable on their own. This means that if a doctor is personally responsible in your case, then you can target him or her personally.

Hospitals are considered liable for all of their employee's actions. For example, if an employee does not exercise caution when working with a patient, the hospital will have to cover the finances for any resulting injuries to the patient. Normally, plaintiffs have to prove that any other employee who is competent and was acting in the same circumstances would have been able to avoid injury. This is because there may be some situations where an injury or mistake is unavoidable.

For example, if a paramedic injects the wrong medication into a patient, or a nurse fails to keep a medication schedule for a patient and this causes extreme pain, then these hospital employees may spark a hospital lawsuit. When a doctor makes a mistake, the hospital cannot be sued unless the doctor is a hospital employee. This is highly unlikely, so typically doctors are targeted personally. For example, if doctor at a hospital misdiagnoses your condition, then you can sue the doctor.

In some cases, you may be able to sue the doctor if a hospital employee makes a mistake under the doctor's supervision. For example, if the doctor was present and the doctor had control to prevent the hospital worker's negligence but did not do so, then the doctor may be considered liable.

Hospitals will be considered responsible in cases where the doctor appears to be an employee of the hospital. Hospitals attempt to avoid this problem by informing patients in the admission forms that the doctor is not a hospital employee. In emergency rooms, it is a little different. Oftentimes because of the frenzied manner of the emergency room, a hospital does not have the time to inform a patient that a doctor is not a hospital employee before procedures start taking place.

Therefore, if the patient is injured he or she may be able to seek compensation from the hospital for the doctors errors. In a dew states, hospitals cam be sued for emergency room malpractice regardless of what the patient was told. Also, if a hospital keeps a dangerous doctor on staff despite multiple reports testifying to his or her incompetence, then the hospital may be held responsible. In some situations, a hospital can also be held responsible if the doctor makes poor choices jeopardizing the heath of patients and is not disposed of. For example, if a doctor has a drug addiction or becomes an alcohol, and the hospital knows about it but does not remove the doctor from staff, then the hospital can be sued for the doctor's malpractice.

Plaintiffs often prefer to sue hospitals as a whole, rather than individual doctors in medical malpractice cases. This is because the hospital lawsuits normally result in bigger payouts. You should never attempt to file a medical malpractice lawsuit without the assistance of an accomplished attorney. This website can help you to locate a medical malpractice lawyer near you and get started working towards a satisfactory settlement in your case!

Related News:

Are Scars Medical Malpractice?

Scarring is the body's natural response to a wound that has healed. Scar tissue is literally skin cells made of fibrous tissue that replace normal skin after an injury. Scars are typically the ...
Read More »

New Bill in Georgia May Affect Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

According to the Florida Times-Union, a new law may cause medical malpractice cases to become more like workers’ compensation claims in the eyes of the law. The law would be active in the state ...
Read More »

Understanding Birth Injuries in Relation to Medical Malpractice

When a newborn sustains a serious injury during birth, you may be left wondering if the incident was due to natural or unavoidable causes, or if a doctor's mistake caused your newborn baby to ...
Read More »