Marietta Hospital Negligence Lawyer

Marietta Hospital Negligence Attorney

Doctors and hospital staff are human and can make preventable mistakes. While most injuries are treatable, others can cause life-changing injuries due to hospital negligence. Patients have the right to expect safe, competent care while under a hospital’s care. If you or a loved one suffered harm due to negligent care at a hospital, a Marietta hospital negligence lawyer can help you. A skilled Marietta medical malpractice lawyer can identify whether negligence occurred.

About The Tolson Firm, LLC

We at The Tolson Firm, LLC, are dedicated to defending individuals and families who have been damaged by careless medical treatment. Women Looking Ahead magazine recently named our founding attorney, Audrey Tolson, one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Female Lawyers” for her efforts on behalf of malpractice victims. She approaches every hospital negligence case with a strong sense of community duty and legal knowledge as a proud Black attorney.

People wounded in hospitals in the Marietta area, particularly Wellstar Cobb Medical Center and Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where advanced medical care is frequently provided, are represented by our firm.

The Four Elements of Hospital Negligence

To file a medical malpractice claim, there are several elements that your attorney must prove. While laws vary by state, a Marietta hospital negligence lawyer generally needs to prove the following four elements:

• Duty of care. All healthcare professionals have a duty to provide treatment that aligns with other healthcare professionals’ care. When you go to a hospital for medical assistance, the nurses, doctors, and staff assume a duty of care towards you and your well-being.
• Failing to meet that standard of care. Once a duty of care is established, we must determine if that provider failed to provide adequate care. Providing care that falls below the level that another healthcare professional would have provided in the same situation can be deemed medical negligence.
• Cause of injury. Your Marietta hospital negligence attorney must prove that your provider’s action or inaction caused your injury. Medical malpractice claims can be complex and typically require testimony from medical professionals.
• Damages. To file a claim, you must have suffered some sort of injury. Examples of injury include financial losses, physical and emotional suffering, and physical injuries.

Vicarious Liability in Marietta

While many medical malpractice cases focus on the negligence of individual healthcare providers such as doctors and surgeons, corporations, large hospitals, and medical centers also hold a degree of liability for the actions of their employees. At The Tolson Firm, our knowledgeable malpractice team can pursue and investigate allegations of institutional liability to better serve our clients.

In Georgia, the legal principle of vicarious liability applies in hospital negligence cases, where hospitals and other medical facilities must comply with certain state laws that mitigate risk. Demonstrating vicarious liability establishes that the context of the employee’s actions violated the usual standards of care in a medical facility.

The doctrine of vicarious liability includes these elements:

• Employment relationship. A genuine employer-employee relationship must exist between the facility and the negligent provider or providers.
• Scope of employment. The negligent act must occur within the scope of employment.
• Underlying negligence. The employee or employees must have been negligent parties. Without employee negligence, the employer has no liability.

In short, employers can be held responsible for the actions of the doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and other medical professionals on staff at the hospital, so long as these negligent actions occurred on premises and within the typical scope of employment.

Corporate Negligence

Corporate negligence is a similar principle to vicarious liability in that hospitals can be held responsible when the institution itself fails to provide a duty of care at the organizational level. Regardless of the actions of an individual provider, a hospital owes direct duties to its patients independent of practitioner conduct.

Corporate negligence can become a factor in medical malpractice cases when a hospital has issues with:

• Negligent hiring practices and retention of unqualified providers. Hospitals are required to research the qualifications for physicians and other medical staff and verify the credentials of any medical professional before allowing them to practice on campus. Hiring or retaining employees who are unqualified or who have been subjected to disciplinary action can constitute a threat to patient welfare.
• Staffing shortfalls. When hospitals are understaffed, call buttons go unanswered, medications are delayed, and the institution may face direct liability for patient harm as a result.
• Protocol and policy gaps. Standard clinical procedures and protocols that protect patients from harm should be established and enforced by medical facilities. A failure to uphold policy or protocol standards can create liability, such as when a triage nurse does not follow established protocol when evaluating a patient for a heart attack or stroke.

Whether your nurse forgot to include vital medication in your IV, neglected to check your vital signs, or ignored your calls for help, your case may qualify for additional liability factors beyond standard medical malpractice.

When you hire a medical malpractice lawyer, they can evaluate your case for institutional failings to help build a compelling argument for corporate negligence and/or vicarious liability when applicable.

It’s important to document any lapses in performance at the institutional level and provide records of these breaches of duty to your attorney. Compensation can be significant in hospital negligence cases, so it is crucial to seek legal advice promptly.

Damages You Can Recover

Healthcare-associated infections continue to be a serious threat to hospital patient safety in the United States. According to the CDC, 1 in 31 hospital patients experiences at least one infection linked to healthcare on any given day. The significant risks associated with dangerous medical environments are highlighted by the fact that 72,000 of the 680,000 patients who get these infections while seeking treatment in U.S. hospitals each year die while in the hospital.

If you or a loved one was injured due to negligent care in a hospital, you may be entitled to monetary damages. Damages vary from case to case and will depend on the circumstances surrounding your injury. In Georgia, patients who are filing medical malpractice claims can pursue two categories of damages. These include economic and non-economic damages. You may recover:

• Hospital bills
• Additional medical treatment costs
• Loss of income
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Decreased quality of life

Hospital Negligence Statute of Limitations

In Georgia, there are time limits on how long you have to file a medical malpractice claim. In general, patients have two years from the date of the injury or death to file their claim. However, there is also a five-year statute of repose. This means that the claim must be filed within five years from the date of the medical negligence, even if the patient didn’t discover the injury until later. A few exceptions to the statute of limitations include:

• If a doctor left a foreign object in your body, you have 1 year to file a claim from the date of discovery.
• If the injured patient was under age 5, then you have until their 7th birthday to file. If the injury could not have been reasonably discovered by the child, you have until their 10th birthday to file the claim.

Due to the complexity of these laws, contacting a lawyer as soon as possible is crucial. You do not want to exceed these deadlines and risk having your case dismissed by the court.

FAQs

Q: How Much Money Does It Cost to File a Claim Against a Hospital?

A: The amount of money it costs to file a claim against a hospital can be expensive or not, depending on the circumstances of your case. Medical malpractice cases often require costs such as court fees, professional witnesses, and medical record retrieval. A lot of medical malpractice attorneys work on a contingency fee arrangement for these kinds of cases. A contingency fee is when the lawyer only gets paid if you recover compensation by settlement or verdict.

Q: How Long Does It Take to File a Claim Against a Hospital for Negligence?

A: Medical malpractice cases take a while to prepare since they require investigation and medical professional opinions. The parties exchange information about evidence after filing, take depositions, and review medical records. Some cases settle before trial, while others must go to court. Depending on how complex your claim is, this can take time.

Q: How Hard Is It to Be Successful With a Medical Malpractice Claim?

A: It can be difficult to be successful with a medical malpractice case in Marietta, Georgia. This is due to the fact that the patient who was injured will need to show that the healthcare provider didn’t satisfy an acceptable standard of care. They will also need to show that the provider’s failure to meet that standard caused them harm. Most of these cases will involve professional testimony and mountains of paperwork. A skilled attorney is crucial to increasing your chance of success.

Q: What Is Considered Hospital Negligence?

A: Hospital negligence refers to the failure of a hospital or medical staff to act with reasonable care, causing injury to the patient. This could involve the following:

• The administration of the wrong medication
• Failure to monitor a patient appropriately
• Surgical errors versus known complications
• Miscommunication amongst staff members
• Poorly trained/unsupervised medical professionals

When medical malpractice causes injury to the patient, the hospital may be held liable for damages.

Hire a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Marietta, GA

If you or a loved one suffered loss or injury, an attorney at The Tolson Firm, LLC, can help you in the legal process. We understand medical malpractice and hospital negligence penalties, and we can advocate on your behalf. Hire a hospital negligence lawyer by contacting us today.