Emergency rooms are supposed to save lives.
But every year, thousands of patients enter an ER in need of help and walk out in a worse condition. Misdiagnosed strokes. Incorrect medications. Anesthesia errors that lead to lasting damage.
The truth is hard to swallow:
- ER errors happen way more often than people think
- Most patients don’t know they have legal options
- The legal standards for these cases are very specific
All about error recording: what the law says.
In this guide:
- The Reality of Emergency Room Errors
- Common Types of ER Mistakes
- The Legal Standards That Apply to ER Errors
- Proving an Emergency Room Negligence Case
The Reality of Emergency Room Errors
ER errors are a much bigger problem than most people realise.
A Johns Hopkins study found that approximately 7.4 million ED diagnostic errors occur each year in the United States. The same study estimated 371,000 serious misdiagnosis-related harms annually from ER visits alone.
Why does this happen so often?
Emergency rooms are a frenzy. Doctors are running from patient to patient. Tests are rushed. Symptoms are overlooked. And people who needed treatment are being sent home or treated for the wrong condition.
Here’s the worst part:
Five conditions account for most of the harm. Stroke, heart attack, aortic dissection, spinal cord injury, and blood clots are responsible for 39 percent of serious harms. Missed in the ER, stroke is undiagnosed about 17% of the time.
If you or a loved one have been injured by one of these errors, a skilled Orange County medical malpractice lawyer can help you determine if you have an anesthesia error claim or another variety of ER negligence case worth pursuing.
Common Types of ER Mistakes
Not every adverse event in the ER is malpractice. However, some errors recur more than others. Here are the most frequent.
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
This is the #1 type of ER error.
A heart attack may be mistaken for indigestion. A stroke patient may be sent home with the assumption they have a headache. Appendicitis may be overlooked until the appendix ruptures.
If the diagnosis is incorrect, the treatment will be incorrect. And if the treatment is incorrect, patients will suffer.
Medication Errors
ERs dispense massive amounts of medications. Painkillers, antibiotics, blood thinners. Errors in this area are especially catastrophic. Typical medication mistakes include the wrong medication, the wrong dosage, the failure to anticipate drug interactions, or a patient’s allergy not listed in their chart.
Anesthesia Errors
While anesthesia errors are less frequent than misdiagnosis, the consequences can be catastrophic. Anesthesia errors are present in about 2.7 percent of all malpractice claims reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank.
A small mistake with anesthesia can cause:
- Brain damage from lack of oxygen
- Cardiac arrest
- Nerve damage
- Death
A claim of anesthesia error most often involves over sedation, under sedation, or a lack of monitoring.
Surgical Mistakes
Emergency situations are sometimes so urgent that they require immediate surgery. Surgical mistakes include operating on the wrong part of the body, leaving instruments in the body, and damaging surrounding tissue and organs.
Improper Discharge
Occasionally, ER staff discharge patients who should have been admitted. The patient becomes sicker and returns to the hospital with severe complications.
The Legal Standards That Apply to ER Errors
Here’s where things get tricky.
An ER doctor cannot be sued just for a bad outcome. The law is very specific about what must be proven.
The Standard of Care
Every medical malpractice case starts with the standard of care.
The standard of care is what a reasonable doctor with similar training would have done under the same circumstances. Not what the best doctor in the world would have done. Just what a reasonable, competent doctor would do.
If the ER doctor’s actions fell below this standard, that’s negligence.
Proving a Breach of the Standard
Proving the doctor breached the standard of care is the hard part.
Expert witnesses are typically required. These are other doctors that can go through the records and testify that the ER doctor erred. Without expert testimony, most medical malpractice cases fail.
In some states, the law is higher for ER cases. Why? Because the ER is a high stress environment. Doctors are forced to make split second decisions with limited information. So the law allows ER doctors a little more leeway.
Causation
Causation means proving the doctor’s mistake actually caused the injury.
The thing is a lot of patients in the ER are already very sick by the time they get there. So even if the doctor was wrong, it must be proven that the error (and not the underlying condition) caused the harm. Proving causation is often the hardest part of an ER negligence claim.
Damages
Finally, there must be actual damages. This can include medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, permanent disability, or wrongful death. Without proof of damages, there is no case.
Proving an Emergency Room Negligence Case
Want to know how these cases actually work? Here’s what’s involved.
Get Your Medical Records
Step #1 is always to obtain the complete medical records from the ER visit. Patients have a legal right to those records. Request them in writing. They indicate what tests were ordered, what tests were NOT ordered and what decisions the doctor made.
Get an Expert Review
Next, the records have to be reviewed by a medical expert. The expert is determining if the standard of care was met. Most attorneys will not accept an ER malpractice case without an expert review first.
Watch the Statute of Limitations
Every state has a statute of limitations. In California, it’s 3 years from the date of injury or 1 year from the date of discovery, whichever is earlier.
If the deadline is missed, the case is dismissed. No matter how strong the case is, if it is not filed in time, it is gone.
Calculate Your Damages
A good lawyer will help calculate all that has been lost. That includes future medical care, future lost income, and non-economic damages like pain and suffering. States like California place caps on certain damages in medical malpractice cases.
Final Thoughts
ER errors happen way too often. And the legal standards are strict.
To recap:
- ER errors affect millions of people every year
- The most common errors are misdiagnosis, medication mistakes, and anesthesia errors
- Proving a case requires breach of standard of care, causation, and damages
- Expert witnesses are almost always needed
- Time limits apply, so don’t wait
If you or a loved one have been injured in the ER, consult with a medical malpractice lawyer. They can evaluate your case and advise if you have one worth pursuing.
The hospital has lawyers protecting them. You should too.
