The occurrence of misdiagnosis in an emergency room setting is exponentially higher than in traditional medicine settings, which is understandable, given the critical and urgent care needs presented to emergency room medical staff members. Emergency room misdiagnosis occurrences, aside from those related to the critical and urgent care needs of a patient, are often the result of several other more fundamental problems associated with emergency health care, including insufficient staffing of emergency rooms, lack of testing and laboratory access even for patients not requiring an urgent diagnosis, and the general atmosphere of constant chaos, which plays heavily into medical professional fatigue and decision making, as well. Given the widely diagnostic environment applicable to emergency rooms versus other health care facilities, the standard of care will vary when determining negligence and potential legal remedies for patients
Standard of Care Applicable to Emergency Room Diagnosis
Aside from first responders, who are offered ample protection from liability relating to misdiagnosis save for grossly reckless or negligent instances, emergency room staffers, doctors, and surgeons are held to a different standard of care than traditional health care professionals. This stems from the case-specific nature of determining negligence based on the standard of care, applicable to a given situations.
Here’s how it works: In order to prove a doctor acted negligently in making a misdiagnosis in the emergency room, patients must prove that another doctor, while working in the same capacity, under the same circumstances would have offered a different, or the correct diagnosis. The context of emergency room care and the verbiage of under the exact same circumstances means the determination of negligence will be solely based on the specific facts, patients, circumstances, and equipment available to a given emergency room doctor at the time of their misdiagnosis. Hence, the standard of care is much more relaxed concerning emergency medicine, relative to the standard of care applicable to a traditional medical setting.
Legal Recourse: Potentially Liable Parties
If a patient can prove misdiagnosis as negligence, they may have a viable medical malpractice claim, provided sufficient damages resulted from the misdiagnosis. In any case of misdiagnosis, the only legal recourse available to a patient is civil action, if they have a viable claims resulting from a given misdiagnosis. However, what parties are responsible for a given misdiagnosis, and in turn, who can be held liable for misdiagnosis damages?
Aside from the doctor or medical staff member that a patient has face to face interactions with while in the emergency room, other parties may also be held liable. This will typically include employers, or in most cases, the hospital where the emergency room treatment occurred, assuming the doctor is an employee of a hospital or is legally construed as being one. In addition, parties responsible for diagnostic errors causing a misdiagnosis may also be held liable in certain cases.
Getting Legal Help with Legal Remedies to Misdiagnosis Damages
Each state has different laws concerning medical malpractice, and in turn, each individual case covers a varied number of medical malpractice laws, which only an attorney can use effectively to the advantage of a patient. Patients who feel they have suffered as the result of a misdiagnosis in the emergency room can only determine the potential legal remedies and rights afforded to them by consulting with a practicing medical malpractice attorney in their state.
