Practice area
Hospital and nursing negligence
Nurses make hundreds of decisions a shift, and most patients are cared for well. When a patient's risks were known and the plan to protect them was not followed, or a hospital let staffing and systems fail, the hospital itself may be responsible.
What this can look like
- A patient not monitored after surgery or sedation
- A fall when the patient was known to be at risk
- Pressure injuries (bedsores) that developed and worsened
- Signs of sepsis or decline not reported to a doctor
- Missed handoffs between shifts, or unsafe staffing
- Neglect in a nursing facility causing infection, dehydration or injury
Systems, not only individuals
A hospital has duties of its own, separate from any one nurse or doctor. Many of our hospital cases are about these systems.
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Staffing
Enough trained staff for how sick the patients on that unit actually were.
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Policies that work
Fall precautions, sepsis screening and handoff rules that are followed, not only written down.
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Who it allows to practise
Checking the training and history of the doctors it lets treat patients.
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Equipment and alarms
Monitors that work, alarms that are answered, and equipment that is maintained.
What the law asks you to show
All four must be true. Most cases are decided by the third one.
- 1.Duty
- The hospital, its nurses and the facility owed safe care, safe staffing and working safety systems.
- 2.Breach
- A nursing or hospital expert would say the risk assessment, monitoring or care plan fell below the standard.
- 3.Causation
- The failure led to the fall, the injury or the decline, rather than the illness itself.
- 4.Harm
- New injury, a longer hospital stay, lasting disability or a death.
Who reviews it
Independent experts who do not work with the providers involved. We pay their fees.
- A nursing expert from the same setting, such as an ICU or long-term care
- A hospital administration expert for staffing and policy questions
- A physician to explain what the failure caused
Records that help
You do not need these before you call. With your permission, we request them.
- Nursing notes and flowsheets
- Fall-risk and skin assessments
- Physician orders and call logs, where they exist
- Wound care records and photographs
- Staffing records, which we request during a case
Deadlines can be short
Claims against public hospitals, and against federal facilities such as VA hospitals, follow special rules and can require formal notice much sooner than a regular lawsuit. Call early if a public hospital was involved. Rules differ by state.
Deadlines, explainedQuestions we hear
Can I bring a claim against the hospital instead of a nurse?
Usually the claim is against the hospital, which is responsible for its employees and its systems. Individual nurses are rarely the focus.
My parent was in a nursing home. Is that the same?
Similar questions apply, though some facilities have different rules and some residents signed arbitration agreements. Bring any admission paperwork you have.
Other practice areas
Tell us what happened. We will tell you the truth about it.
A free, confidential review by our nurse and an independent physician. If we do not believe it was malpractice, we will say so and explain why.