When seeking treatment at a healthcare facility like Flushing Hospital Medical Center, errors by doctors, nurses, and other staff members may lead to you experiencing complications or new injuries. Harm caused by negligent healthcare may entitle you to seek compensation through a malpractice claim. As a result, after you’ve developed complications or sustained injuries from treatment, you need to know what to expect when filing a medical malpractice claim in New York.
What Is Medical Malpractice
Not every adverse treatment outcome indicates that medical malpractice has occurred. Medical malpractice occurs when a patient experiences complications, injuries, or other harm due to negligent decisions or treatment by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, physician assistants, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, or therapists. A healthcare provider commits negligence when they render treatment that deviates from the accepted standard of care. Although the specifics of the standard of care vary in each patient’s case, medical professionals generally define the standard as the treatment decisions and actions that other professionals of similar training and experience would undertake in identical circumstances.
The key elements of a medical malpractice claim include:
- The existence of a patient-provider relationship
- The provider’s deviation from the standard of care
- The provider’s deviation directly and proximately causes the patient’s harm
- The patient incurs damages due to the harm they suffered
Common Types of Medical Malpractice in Hospitals
Some of the most frequent examples of malpractice that occur in hospital settings include:
- Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
- Surgical errors, such as wrong patient/site surgery or leaving equipment inside a patient
- Anesthesia errors, including mistakes in administering anesthesia or failing to monitor the patient’s condition
- Birth injuries (physical trauma or complications to the mother or newborn during delivery)
- Premature discharge
- Hospital-acquired infections
- Medication errors, including dispensing mistakes or administering medication to the wrong patient
Why Medical Malpractice Occurs at Hospitals
Certain features of hospitals and other large healthcare facilities can increase the risk of medical malpractice occurring. Some of these factors include:
- High-patient volumes, especially in emergency departments
- Staffing shortages and staff fatigue
- Communication breakdowns, especially between different departments, between members of surgical teams, or during shift changes
- Inadequate documentation or recordkeeping
- Deficient infection control procedures
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in New York
Filing a medical malpractice action against a facility like Flushing Hospital Medical Center begins with a thorough investigation and case evaluation to obtain evidence that establishes a provider’s negligence caused injuries or complications. In New York, malpractice claimants must submit a Certificate of Merit with their complaint, in which their attorney certifies that they have consulted medical experts who have opined that the claim has merit or that the facts of the case clearly indicate that it has merit. Under New York’s statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims, a patient typically has 30 months from the negligent treatment to file a lawsuit, though various exceptions can extend this deadline.
Compensation Available in Medical Malpractice Claims
In a medical malpractice claim, you may have the right to recover compensation for various losses you incur due to your injuries and complications, including:
- Additional medical treatment and rehabilitation expenses
- Costs of long-term disability care
- Lost wages or income from additional time missed from work
- Loss of earning capacity due to prolonged or permanent disabilities
- Physical pain and anguish
- Emotional trauma or distress
- Reduced quality of life due to disabilities or disfigurement, or reduced life expectancy
Contact Our New York Medical Malpractice Lawyers for Help Pursuing a Claim Against Flushing Hospital Medical Center
Have you suffered injuries or complications after treatment at Flushing Hospital Medical Center? If so, you may have the right to recover compensation from negligent healthcare providers responsible for your harm and loss. Contact McCann Legal, PC today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a New York medical malpractice attorney to learn more about what to expect when filing a malpractice claim against a hospital and its medical staff.