Patients go to a hospital to get well, but sometimes the opposite may happen. The possibility of infection is a real risk that affects thousands of patients every year. While most infections that are transferred to a patient will be diagnosed and treated in time, it is possible that medical staff may overlook symptoms, or otherwise fail to act quickly enough to prevent further injury to the patient.
In some situations, negligent medical treatment may be the root cause of an infection causing serious injury. If this is the case, medical malpractice law provides that patients be compensated for the doctors’ or medical staffs’ failure to perform their duties.
Risk Factors for Infection
In any hospital or clinical setting, there are a few factors that contribute to the likelihood that a patient will acquire an infection.
Iatrogenic Risk Factors
Iatrogenic risk factors include the presence of pathogens on the hands of doctors, nurses or other medical professionals. This factor is especially dangerous when combined with an invasive procedure such as the administration of intravenous medication, intubation, and catheterization.
Doctors and nurses can reduce this risk by regularly washing hands, or using new gloves for each patient, and using antibiotic soaps and scrubs.
Patient Risk Factors
Another factor involved in patients acquiring an infection has to do with the patient’s immune system. In general, people visiting a hospital are not in great health, and their immune system may be weak providing little resistance to an infection taking hold and spreading.
Organizational Risk Factors
Organizational risk factors are comprised of the overall hygiene and cleanliness of the hospital or clinical setting. Hospitals are required to have effective filtration in the HVAC (Heating, ventilating and air conditioning) so that airborne pathogens are filtered out of the air.
Additionally, hospital surfaces such as beds, sheets, walls, counters, cabinets and medical utensils should be cleaned and disposed of in-between patients as much as is necessary to minimize the presence of bacteria and other pathogens.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Once an infection has been transferred to a patient it is critical that medical staff recognize the symptoms and act immediately to treat the patient and minimize the impact.
There have been numerous cases of patients complaining of unusual redness or swelling, odors emanating from treated wounds or healing surgical sites, only to be ignored by “busy” hospital staff. This can be a form of negligent medical care for which the hospital, doctor or other medical staff may be held liable.
Patient Rights
If negligent medical care leads to an infection that is allowed to spread and cause further injury to the patient, then the law allows for compensation to be demanded for undue damages. In order to have a valid medical malpractice claim, there must be some type of medical negligence present that leads to the infection and patient injury.
In order to establish if medical negligence occurred and how it caused undue patient suffering, talk to an attorney specializing in medical malpractice. Most medical malpractice attorneys will have a medical doctor on staff or nearby to investigate the details of the situation and determine if the medical treatment received was up to the accepted standard of care.
