Baltimore Hospital Malpractice Lawyers

Attorneys for Negligence by Doctors, Nurses, or Hospital Staff Members in Baltimore, MD

All clinical practitioners can be liable for medical negligence when the facts support such a claim. In certain situations, it is possible for victims of alleged medical negligence to also sue the hospital, medical office, or professional association where they received treatment or that employed the healthcare provider.

Simply put, a hospital can be negligent if a hospital employee (including doctors, nurses, and other staff) does something improperly or fails to do something they were supposed to do, resulting in an injury. If this is the case, the hospital may be liable for medical negligence.

Types of Hospital Malpractice

Situations that may give rise to liability on behalf of the hospital are countless, but some of the most common situations that may result from hospital negligence include:

• Medication errors, either by giving a patient the wrong medication or the wrong dosage, or by administering it through the wrong route
• Surgical errors, which may include issues such as removal of the wrong body part, performing the wrong surgery, injuring a nearby structure or organ, or leaving a sponge, instrument, probe, or other object in a patient's body after surgery
• Misdiagnosis or failure to treat an illness, including failure to order proper tests or consult with a specialist
• Surgery performed on a patient without their informed consent
• Birth injury or trauma
• Failure to monitor or stabilize a patient properly, including failures resulting from staff shortages that compromise adequate patient care
• Improper use of a medical device
• Failure to ensure all hospital staff have the required education, training, certifications, and licenses
• Failure to maintain patient records or loss of records
• Improper use of anesthesia, including administering it without proper precautions to minimize the chances of an allergic reaction
• Failure to properly dress and treat wounds may cause an infection to develop

While this list certainly is not exhaustive, any of these occurrences may give rise to a medical malpractice action against a hospital for medical negligence.

Who Can Be Held Liable for Hospital Malpractice?

Under the legal doctrine of vicarious liability, an employer may be held liable for the negligence of its employees if the employee causes an injury to a patient while the employee is on the job. In short, if a hospital employee is acting within the scope of their employment when the injury occurs, the patient may sue the hospital for medical negligence. While practitioners and healthcare providers are responsible for their own medical negligence, hospitals can also be liable for negligence committed by their employees.

Physicians, on the other hand, may not necessarily be hospitals' employees for purposes of hospital negligence actions. Just under half of physicians are independent contractors, and hospitals often try to avoid responsibility for medical negligence by these doctors, even if the negligence occurred in the hospital.

When determining whether a healthcare provider is an employee or independent contractor, the touchstone is whether the hospital has the "right of control" over the physician, i.e., whether the hospital has the ability to control the healthcare provider's provision of evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment services to patients. Some factors that may help determine whether a hospital has the right of control over a healthcare provider include whether the hospital controls and/or supervises the provider's working hours or sets fees that the provider may charge. Because the crucial factor to vicarious liability is an employee-employer relationship, hospitals often claim that the healthcare provider who caused the injury is an independent contractor, not an employee.

Compensation for Hospital Negligence

Victims of hospital negligence may be entitled to compensation for medical bills and expenses, lost wages, and/or pain and suffering, including physical pain, loss of quality of life, and emotional distress. Beyond such monetary compensation, hospital negligence suits can incentivize hospitals to take the appropriate steps to prevent the same or similar mistakes from happening to another patient.

Contact Our Baltimore, Maryland Hospital Malpractice Attorneys

When hospital malpractice has resulted in injuries to patients, victims will need to work with a medical malpractice attorney who can protect their rights and advocate for fair compensation for the damages they have suffered. At Silverman Thompson, attorneys Andrew G. Slutkin and Ethan S. Nochumowitz regularly help our clients address these issues. Contact our Baltimore hospital negligence lawyers at 410-385-2225 for a free consultation.