Can You Sue a Hospital for Staff Negligence?

When you are in the hospital for an illness, injury, or medical procedure, you’re put into a vulnerable position that requires you to trust that all staff members involved in your care uphold their legal duty to treat you at the medical community’s accepted care standards.

Unfortunately, sometimes a provider breaches their duty of care, and the result is serious harm, including an injury, a worsened medical condition, shortened life expectancy, or wrongful death. Most medical malpractice claims are brought against a negligent doctor, but in some cases, the hospital itself may be liable for your damages in a medical malpractice claim.

Reach out to a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago from Smith LaCien Trial Lawyers LLP for a free consultation.

Understanding Staff Negligence in Medical Malpractice Claims

Patient care in a hospital is a collaborative effort, with administrators, nursing staff, and physicians all tasked with carefully following safety protocols and proper procedures to meet the medical community’s required standard of care. The most common causes of staff-related medical malpractice in hospitals include the following:

• Failure to properly monitor a patient
• Failure to inform an attending physician of a patient’s change in medical status
• Mistakes in administering medications
• Patient identification errors
• Failure to treat a patient
• Improper care procedures
• Failure to follow pre-surgery protocols to avoid wrong-patient, wrong-side, and wrong-site surgeries
• Medical implements left behind during surgery
• Inadequate post-surgical monitoring
• Hospital-acquired infections
• Failure to identify infection
• Premature patient discharge
• Negligent staff training
• Negligent staff hiring procedures

Even when a physician makes an error, such as misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or surgical errors, the hospital could be accountable rather than the doctor if the doctor is a hospital employee rather than an independent contractor.

Unfortunately, medical research studies show that medical malpractice remains a growing public health concern, with an estimated 400,000 preventable patient deaths resulting from medical malpractice each year.

When Is a Hospital Liable for Staff Negligence?

A hospital may be held liable for damages if the evidence shows that the facility’s administrators breached the required duty of care, the breach of duty caused injury, and the injury victim suffered damages from the injury. A hospital may be liable for the following examples of negligence:

• Negligent staff hiring
• Inadequate staffing
• Inadequate equipment maintenance
• Insufficient hospital-borne infection mitigation measures
• Inadequate staff training
• Inadequate implementation of staff safety protocols
• Emergency room negligence
• Inadequate staff supervision

Holding a hospital or other medical facility liable for damages not only requires compelling evidence of liability by proving that the hospital violated the duty of care, but it also requires evidence that the patient suffered damages from the malpractice.

Common Damages Recovered In Hospital Malpractice Claims

A medical malpractice victim may suffer serious harm, such as an injury, worsened medical outcome, lowered life expectancy, or wrongful death due to hospital negligence. A successful claim doesn’t erase the harm, but it brings victims or their surviving family members a sense of justice and financial accountability for their losses.

Common damages recovered include past and future medical expenses, past and future income loss, compensation for pain and suffering, and catastrophic injury compensation. If hospital malpractice caused wrongful death, a close surviving family member can recover wrongful death compensation.

Hospital malpractice claims require careful handling, meticulous attention to filing requirements, meticulous attention to detail, and compelling evidence.