Medical Malpractice Attorney Serving New York

If you visited an emergency room (ER) in New York and experienced substandard care, you may be entitled to financial compensation if you were injured. A medical malpractice lawyer at Napoli Shkolnik PLLC can talk to you about the options available to you in this important matter. Depending on the cause of your injuries and other circumstances surrounding your case, you may be able to recover money for medical bills, lost wages and other expenses or injuries. ERs are busy places. The staff members in the emergency department at a hospital face difficult tasks day in and day out as they try to assess and treat as many patients as possible. Because patients may seek emergency treatment for such a wide range of illnesses and injuries, ER nurses and doctors must be particularly vigilant in watching for symptoms and warning signs of life-threatening conditions or conditions that may worsen if they are not immediately treated. Mistakes and negligence are costly when made by ER staff. One of the most important functions of an ER is to properly organize patients based on their medical conditions. Because patients may go to the ER for a variety of medical conditions, they must be talked to an examined to accurately determine whether they need should be admitted to the hospital or sent home. ER staff will also need to determine who should be seen first and who can wait. Triage nurses typically perform this function in New York ERs. A triage nurse is a medical professional, typically an employee of the hospital or medical facility where the ER is located, who is responsible for organizing patients based on the seriousness of their illnesses or injuries. Triage nurses need to have the know-how and resources to make quick and accurate patient assessments. They should be able to remain calm under pressure and should have good communication skills so they can more easily and accurately determine what symptoms a patient is suffering from. Most importantly, triage nurses should take reasonable measures to ensure they are providing quality assessments and care.

Emergency Room Negligence and Wrongdoing

When any person in an emergency room is careless, makes a mistake or intentionally does harm, a patient may suffer the consequences. Negligence is defined as a failure to provide proper care in the circumstances, and in an ER this may include a number of scenarios:

• An inaccurate diagnosis of a stroke or heart attack, leading to permanent brain damage or death.
• Discharging a patient who is suffering from a potentially life-threatening head injury.
• Misclassifying a patient as low-risk when that patient requires immediate care.
• Failing to listen to a patient describing his or her symptoms to make an accurate assessment.
• Failing to note down a drug allergy or current medications a patient is taking.

In any of these situations, a patient may suffer permanent harm or may even lose his or her life. Our New York medical malpractice lawyers are dedicated to holding hospitals responsible for substandard ER care, whether it stems from failures on the part of their staff or from the facility's own negligence. Hospital negligence leading to ER errors may result from negligent implementation of training or safety standards or failures to perform proper background checks on ER staff. The majority of ER malpractice lawsuits are filed against the hospitals where the incidents occurred. Looking for legal guidance after sustaining harm as a result of negligence at a New York emergency room? Contact a medical malpractice lawyer at Napoli Shkolnik PLLC.