Being seriously injured is a stressful and often painful experience. Some injuries can find a person in the emergency room. When one goes to the emergency room, he or she should be comforted that the staff and the doctors will take the proper care. It is safe to say that an emergency room is a hectic environment. Nonetheless, procedures are put in place to protect the health and safety of those who need medical attention. One of the most concerning aspects of an emergency room is something called the “patient handoff”.
What is the patient handoff?
While the emergency room nurses and doctors may take the proper care, they are often not the ones who will care for the patient for the long term, namely when a patient is admitted to the hospital. The passing of information from one hospital crew to the next is called the patient handoff. This is a facet of hospital care that can be downright dangerous. If a nurse or doctor was to forget or neglect critical information in this process, the results can be devastating. A person can suffer injury or death because of medication errors, including allergies to a drug or adverse effects of a combination of drugs. Others can suffer from unneeded medical procedures because the patient handoff did not adequately describe the ailment or a patient’s degree of recovery. These are just a few examples.
How do I know if I have a medical malpractice case?
One of the biggest questions on a person’s mind whether they have a case of medical malpractice. It is important to discuss this matter with an experienced medical malpractice attorney. While mistakes can happen, medical malpractice is the degree in which a doctor or nurse fails to meet the medical standard of care. Only a thorough investigation can answer that.
Contact our firm
If you believe that your health was worsened by the care you received in an emergency room, contact our firm. Mark L. Bodner, P.C. provides effective legal services regarding medical malpractice in hospitals and other medical institutions. Contact us to discuss your legal matter.