If you or a loved one suffers injuries and other damages because of medical malpractice, you may be able to sue a hospital for compensation. However, you must prove that the hospital’s negligence led to those damages with sufficient evidence, which an attorney may help collect.
To find out whether you have a medical malpractice case against a hospital or another medical facility, call Chute, O’Malley, Knobloch, and Turcy, LLC, at 630-412-4747 today.
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Laws and Regulations for Medical Facilities in Illinois
Medical errors are potentially serious, with around 98,000 deaths resulting each year in the U.S. because of them.
Medical facilities have a duty in Illinois to provide the best possible care to patients, minimizing the risk of error. However, medical errors still occur, which can be the fault of negligent medical professionals or facilities, including problems with America’s healthcare system. For instance, medical errors could result from insufficient safety protocols or poor coordination of care, leading to serious injuries or fatalities.
To help prevent medical malpractice and errors, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has over 200 programs in place for medical facilities. These programs help reinforce Illinois General Assembly-passed laws regarding medical practices. Even with these laws and programs in place, medical facilities may still be liable for damages resulting from malpractice.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?
If you’re considering suing a hospital for negligence, one question you may ask is, “What is medical malpractice?”
In short, medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional or facility fails to meet the standards in place for care, resulting in a patient’s injuries or death due to either omission or negligence.
If a medical professional or a health care facility is liable for medical malpractice, you may be able to recover compensation for the damages resulting from this malpractice.
When Can a Hospital Be Held Liable?
There are multiple situations when a hospital or another type of medical facility may be liable for medical malpractice:
Failure to Provide Adequate Treatment
One reason people may sue a hospital is due to the failure to properly treat a condition, even when properly diagnosed. Patients must receive the appropriate treatment for their condition, or they may suffer injuries or even death due to complications stemming from inadequate care.
Failure to Diagnose and Misdiagnosis
In some cases, patients may not receive a diagnosis for a condition they have, or their doctor may misdiagnose their condition. In either case, diagnosis errors can also lead to serious issues. For example, if a patient doesn’t receive a diagnosis, he or she may not receive treatment to help him or her recover. Meanwhile, a misdiagnosis could lead doctors to prescribe the wrong treatment, which could fail to address the actual condition or even cause direct harm to the patient.
Medication Errors
Medical professionals may also fail to provide patients with the right medication or the right dosage. In these instances, patients may experience harmful effects from these medications, or their condition may worsen due to inadequate treatment.
Medication errors can involve prescriptions and other forms of medication administration. For instance, an anesthesiologist might administer an unsafe dosage of anesthesia during a surgical procedure. Meanwhile, a doctor may not prescribe enough of a medication to effectively treat a condition.
Failure to Document
Another form of malpractice may involve medical professionals failing to create or maintain proper patient documentation. For example, a doctor may not include enough information about a patient on a form, leading to future instances of improper care in the hands of other professionals.
Surgical and Other Injuries
Hospitals and medical professionals may be liable for any surgical errors, birth injuries, or other direct injuries resulting from insufficient care. An example of this type of error could involve surgeons leaving surgical instruments inside of patients following a procedure, which can cause serious damage to a patient’s body.
Compensation for Medical Malpractice
There are different types of compensation that individuals may recover in medical malpractice cases. These can include:
- Economic Damages: These can include medical bills for treating injuries resulting from malpractice, along with other costs related to medical errors like lost income, rehabilitation, and physical therapy.
- Non-economic Damages: Patients who suffer injuries due to malpractice may also suffer pain and suffering, suing a hospital for emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and other personal losses that can warrant compensation.
- Wrongful Death Damages: If a patient dies because of malpractice, facilities and professionals may also need to pay wrongful death damages, including the cost of burying or holding a funeral for a decedent.
How to File a Lawsuit Against a Hospital
To file a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital or another type of medical facility, there are some key steps you must take to increase your chances of success. These steps entail:
Proving Liability
To succeed with a medical malpractice case and sue a hospital for negligence, there are a few main items you must prove.
First, you must show that the facility owed you a duty of care. Often, this proof will come in the form of a written document establishing a doctor-patient relationship.
You must then prove that the facility or doctor breached this duty of care or failed to meet the standards of care in place. Specifically, you’ll need to show that your provider didn’t give you the level of care that other professionals in a similar field would have provided in your situation.
In addition, you’ll need to prove that the doctor’s failure to provide adequate care directly contributed to your injuries or the death of a loved one. Subsequently, you will need to show that you suffered quantifiable damages that you may be able to recover in a settlement.
Collecting Enough Evidence
To prove the above items, you need to have sufficient evidence to build your case. There are many pieces of evidence you may use to prove liability and the damages you sustained.
Some of these evidence items may include the following:
- Medical Records: One of the main pieces of evidence that a malpractice case will use is a collection of medical records. These records can prove everything from misdiagnoses and failures to diagnose to the administration or prescription of the wrong type of treatment.
- Proof of Lost Income: You may also be unable to return to work for a time after sustaining injuries, which would result in lost income. You may be able to prove this type of damage by keeping pay stubs and records of doctor’s appointments that prove that you took time off from work to receive or seek treatment.
- Visual Evidence: You might be able to take pictures or record video of your injuries, or you could collect footage from the facility showing instances of malpractice.
- Affidavit of Merit: In proving that a medical professional or facility breached their duty of care, medical malpractice attorneys could get an affidavit of merit showing that a medical expert in a similar field to your provider found the latter to have failed to meet the standard of care.
Filing Before the Statute of Limitations Runs Out
One of the common mistakes after a medical malpractice case involves failing to file before reaching the statute of limitations.
Every civil case has a specific statute of limitations in place that gives plaintiffs a limited amount of time to begin a lawsuit. In Illinois, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits is two years from the date of the injury. In other words, you will have two years to file a suit before you’re unable to pursue compensation.
However, there are exceptions to the statute of limitations in some cases, depending on the plaintiff’s situation. For example, the statute of limitations may not begin until the patient is 18 if the malpractice incident occurred while the patient was still a minor. The state could also pause the statute of limitations if the defendant in the case is not present in Illinois.
Consulting an Attorney
To maximize your chances of success with a medical malpractice lawsuit, consult with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to discuss a potential case. An attorney can detail how to sue a hospital or other entities for malpractice, collect and organize evidence to build your case, and indicate how long a medical malpractice takes to complete while navigating you through the process.
To build a case with a Naperville medical malpractice lawyer, contact us at Chute, O’Malley, Knobloch, and Turcy, LLC, today.