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Medical Malpractice: Hospital Staff Error
Subject to some exceptions, a hospital can be held liable for the medical malpractice of its employees. Medical malpractice usually involves a doctor’s error in performing a medical procedure like a failed surgery. But it can also concern the act or failure to act of any nurse, assistant, or technical specialist employed by the hospital.
Nurse and staff error can result in dangerous hospital conditions. Because of the strangeness of hospital equipment, the newness of hallways and corridors, and the increased likelihood of contracting disease, hospitals can be dangerous places to begin with. Staff oversights can result in a real likelihood of injury.
One of the classic cases is when a nurse forgets to put up the side rail on a hospital gurney. A gurney is like a rolling bed for transferring patients. If a patient falls asleep on a gurney, or is under the influence of disorienting drugs, the danger of falling off is very real.
Medical Malpractice vs. Ordinary Carelessness
There is controversy, however, over whether staff error constitutes medical malpractice, or is just a normal mistake that anyone could make. The outcome to this question often determines how much the patient can recover. Counter-intuitively, in many states, a patient injured in a hospital slip-n-fall can recover more money than a patient injured because of a doctor’s mistake.
Another example of staff medical malpractice is failure to warn patients of a certain patient’s known violent propensities. A blood analysis technician is liable for failing to dispose of needles properly, leading to the HIV infection of garbage-handlers. However, if a janitor fails to put equipment back in the proper area, or the hospital fails to repair a crack in the floor, creating an unsafe condition, this probably would not constitute medical malpractice.
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