Claims Involving Emergency Room Delays Due to Overcrowded Hospitals

Emergency rooms are supposed to provide prompt medical treatment to those in need of immediate care. When overcrowding leads to unreasonable emergency room delays, it can cause injuries and medical conditions to worsen. Those seeking help may end up suffering additional harm or life-threatening situations that could have been prevented.

A medical malpractice lawyer in Washington can help injured parties with claims involving emergency room delays due to overcrowded hospitals. An attorney can assist with case building and prove that medical negligence hurt you or your loved one.

How can emergency room delays hurt patients?

The most obvious way emergency room delays hurt patients is by preventing them from getting treatment. Even minor delays can be catastrophic for patients seeking help for a heart attack, stroke, brain injury, organ damage, or severe bleeding.

Overcrowded hospitals and emergency rooms can also contribute to medical mistakes, such as:

• Diagnostic errors or failure to treat – When staff and physicians are under pressure due to overcrowding, they may not thoroughly examine patients. They may also fail to order testing. This can lead to misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, and failure to treat.
• Medication errors – Overcrowding can contribute to wrong-patient, wrong-medication, and wrong-dosage errors. Not having time to take a patient’s complete health history can lead to adverse drug events (ADEs) caused by medication interactions.
• Surgical errors – The need to treat as many patients as quickly as possible can lead to a failure to follow surgical protocols. This failure can cause errors, such as wrong-patient and wrong-site surgeries.
• Hospital-acquired infections – Overcrowding can increase the spread of contagious infections and diseases. Rushed staff may also fail to follow sanitation and sterilization protocols.
• Negligent patient monitoring – When a hospital or emergency room is overwhelmed, it can lead to negligent monitoring, which could result in a failure to respond to a distressed patient. Negligent monitoring can also cause injuries, like patient falls.
• Premature patient discharge – Overcrowded emergency rooms and hospitals may be more likely to send patients home who should be admitted or kept longer.

A medical malpractice lawyer can review your claim. If your injury was caused by a delay in emergency room treatment due to hospital overcrowding, an attorney can help you prove it.

How can hospitals prevent delays?

Hospitals must take reasonable steps to prevent emergency room overcrowding. To ensure prompt medical treatment, hospitals should:

• Effectively use triage – Triage is the process hospitals use to quickly determine the severity of a patient’s injury. When used effectively, triage can prioritize the patients who need care most immediately.
• Ensure adequate staffing – Understaffing contributes to overcrowding. Hospitals need to ensure emergency rooms are fully staffed. Hospitals should also ensure that staff are well-trained and supported by the necessary tools, equipment, and protocols.
• Monitor patient flow – Hospitals should continuously monitor available bed space. Medical facilities should also review their emergency room procedures to eliminate bottlenecks. Efficient patient intake and discharge procedures are also important.
• Coordinate with other medical facilities – When hospitals and emergency departments are overwhelmed, they should coordinate with other facilities to transport patients for care. They should not continue to admit patients or turn people away, but should provide appropriate screening and stabilizing care before any transfer or redirection.

Sometimes, especially at large city hospitals, such as Harborview Medical Center or Swedish Hospital in Seattle, overcrowding can be difficult to prevent. However, how facilities manage it when it happens can make all the difference.

When is delayed treatment considered medical malpractice?

A delay in emergency room treatment may be medical malpractice if it resulted from a preventable error caused by negligence. To prove medical negligence, you must show that:

1. A doctor/patient relationship existed. You came to the emergency room seeking treatment, and the hospital undertook your evaluation or treatment.
2. The hospital did not uphold the standard of care. The delay in treatment (or the care that resulted from it and overcrowding) was not what others in the medical profession would view as reasonable or necessary.
3. The treatment you received was a direct cause of your injury. The delay in emergency room treatment caused your injury to worsen.
4. You suffered damages. Your injury caused you pain and suffering and financial losses.

Establishing that an emergency room delay due to overcrowding caused your injury can be challenging. A medical malpractice lawyer can help you gather evidence to support your claim, including eyewitness testimony, your medical records, the hospital’s patient, staffing, and treatment records, and testimony from case experts, such as medical professionals and emergency medicine (EM) specialists.

Compensation you could recover from a delayed treatment claim

If negligent medical care harmed you, you should not have to pay for it. You should also not have to pay for the care you need to correct a malpractice injury. You can seek compensation for current and future medical bills, including hospital and doctor fees, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and long-term nursing.

You can seek your lost wages and employment benefits if you have missed work because of a malpractice injury or illness. If negligent treatment left you with a permanent condition or disability that prevents you from returning to your job, you can seek compensation for your lost future earning capacity.

You may also qualify for non-economic damages for pain and suffering. This may include monetary compensation for severe physical pain, scarring, disfigurement, paralysis, mental anguish, emotional distress, and lost quality of life.

Sadly, sometimes a delay in emergency treatment can result in death. If your loved one was fatally injured, you can seek wrongful death compensation. These damages cannot ease your grief, but they can protect your family financially as you heal from your loss.

A medical malpractice lawyer can help you identify all of the damages owed to you. An attorney can also aggressively negotiate with medical malpractice insurance providers for a full and fair settlement.

Time limits for pursuing your case

It is advisable to notify insurers promptly in claims against the hospital and any negligent staff or medical providers.

If you must sue for fair compensation, RCW 4.16.350 allows three years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit in most cases. Some circumstances could extend this deadline. A lawyer can tell you more about them and whether they apply to your claim.

In general, if the statute of limitations expires, you cannot pursue damages in civil court. If this happens, you have no legal leverage over the insurance company. So this deadline matters, even if you expect to settle through insurance negotiations.

Contact Smith McBroom Injury and Accident Lawyers

At Smith McBroom, we provide serious representation that gets real results. If you or someone you love was hurt by an emergency room delay due to overcrowded hospitals, we can help you prove it and pursue the compensation you need.

Contact us today to learn more about how a medical malpractice lawyer with our firm can fight for you. We offer free initial consultations and are available 24/7.