Indianapolis Hospital Malpractice Attorney
The wrong baby is sent home with the parents after delivery. A surgery is performed on the wrong side of the body, or on the wrong patient. Hospitals call these incidents “never events,” because they are never supposed to happen. But the fact that hospitals have a name for them indicates that they do indeed happen. In fact, “never events” occur thousands of times a year in hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country. The Indianapolis hospital malpractice attorneys at Lee Cossell & Feagley, LLP fight to hold hospitals throughout Indiana liable when their institutional negligence results in serious personal injury or wrongful death.
Hospitals are supposed to have appropriate policies and procedures in place to make sure never events, also called sentinel events, don’t happen, and the facility may be liable if it did not have the necessary policies clearly in place, or if the necessary training and supervision was never conducted. In addition, hospitals as employers can be held liable for the negligent acts of their employees committed during the course of employment. If a nurse administers the wrong medicine, if a radiologist misreads an x-ray, if unsanitized instruments are used or a hospital room is not effectively cleaned before use, the hospital may face liability for the serious injuries which result.
Are Doctors Hospital Employees?
If the malpractice was committed by a physician or surgeon at the hospital, can the hospital be held liable as well as the doctor? This can be a difficult question to answer. Doctors frequently have “privileges” which allow them to practice or operate on patients at the hospital, but they may not technically have the status of employees the way a nurse, technician or orderly may be. Sometimes doctors are part of a physician group which contracts with the facility, complicating the issue even further. At Lee Cossell & Feagley, LLP, we understand the complex legal and factual issues which may be present in a hospital malpractice case.
HMO Liability
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are often the only affordable health insurance option for many people. HMOs keep their premiums low by keeping their costs down, and they do this by acting as gatekeepers between the patients and their access to medical care. The HMO may decline to cover a referral, test or procedure based on its cost containment policy. Unfortunately, these decisions could result in a patient receiving a less effective drug or course of treatment, or missing the early detection of a serious medical condition, such as cancer. When decisions based on cost containment instead of medical need result in serious harm that could have been avoided, the HMO may face liability for the damage done.
Experienced Indiana Medical Malpractice Attorneys for Cases of Hospital Malpractice
If you came out of a hospital sicker than you went in, and your injury or illness can’t be explained by your previous medical condition, failures on the part of the hospital and its employees may have contributed to your illness or injury. If you suspect negligence, recklessness or incompetence at the hospital caused you serious harm, contact Lee Cossell & Feagley, LLP in Indianapolis for a free consultation with an experienced Indiana hospital malpractice attorney.
