Get Compensation for Hospital Negligence in Kansas City, MO
When people are hurt or ill and need hospital care, they most frequently anticipate that their condition will get better once they are in the hospital. However, this is not always the case. Many discover what hospital negligence is in Kansas City, MO after being treated in an institution and finding that their conditions have worsened.
When this happens, having experienced medical malpractice lawyers on your side is critical. Hospitals may be held accountable when you sustain injuries as a result of medical malpractice. Ricket Law Firm, a medical negligence law firm in Kansas City, can help you fight for justice and obtain maximum compensation.
If you or a loved one has experienced life-threatening medical issues following a hospital visit, negligence could be possible on the hospital’s end. Get help from a hospital malpractice attorney who is knowledgeable in this area of personal injury law and who has the resources necessary to successfully prosecute your case. Contact us now to learn more!
Why Do I Need a Hospital Negligence Lawyer in Missouri?
Medical negligence is a unique subset of personal injury law. It involves an in-depth understanding of two of the most complex bodies of knowledge: medicine and law. If you desire to file a lawsuit against a hospital, you need a medical malpractice attorney with proven experience in medical negligence cases.
Ricket Law Firm attorneys understand how to challenge hospitals, detect policy and regulatory infractions, and uncover wrongdoings. The attorney is attentive and responsive to your medical and legal needs throughout your case and meticulously prepares you for trial.
You are entitled to have a professional advocate on your side who can:
- Evaluate your hospital negligence case and assess if you have a claim
- Gather evidence and witness testimonies to build a compelling case
- Employ a medical expert witness to represent you in court
- Submit all pertinent documentation accurately and on schedule
- Calculate the value of your injuries in monetary terms
- Manage all communications with the opposing party and insurance company
- Discuss the possibility of a settlement with the hospital’s insurance provider
- Defend your case in court if required
A patient has the legal right to receive compensation for any injuries caused by hospital negligence. Our Kansas hospital negligence attorney can be your best option for obtaining fair compensation. Speak to us now and seek legal advice!
Call our Kansas City, MO medical malpractice attorneys from Ricket Law Firm, LLC, to help in this trying time. The experienced attorney also helps clients with legal issues involving nursing home neglect and abuse, and wrongful death. Don’t go through the legal process alone. Call an attorney right now.
What is Hospital Negligence?
Hospital negligence is a form of medical malpractice in which a patient sustains an injury or dies. It may come from hospital personnel error, negligence, or carelessness. Unlike a single physician, this can comprise administration, personnel, nurses, and attendant staff. Doctor negligence is a distinct case type since, in most circumstances, doctors are not hospital employees but rather contractors.
Patients are expected to receive care and treatment in a secure environment from hospitals and their staff. However, patients may suffer injuries or even die when hospitals fail their patients due to neglect and misconduct. When a patient sustains an injury at the hands of a member of the hospital staff, the patient has the legal right to file a claim for compensation for the injury.
However, lawsuits alleging hospital negligence are rarely simple situations. Fortunately, a Kansas medical negligence lawyer can guide you and assist you in navigating this complicated process with ease. Reach out to our Kansas law firm today!
What is the Medical Standard of Care?
The term medical standard of care is used to assess whether the medical provider was careless. To guarantee that patients are handled safely, healthcare providers must abide by legal medical regulations.
The Hippocratic Oath is a pledge made by doctors to conduct themselves honestly and morally. A doctor has most certainly departed from the accepted standard of care if they behave contrary to the Hippocratic Oath. The actions of the healthcare provider will be compared by the courts to what a prudent healthcare provider would have done.
Other Liability Issues
Other concerns, such as ineffective hospital staff administration, might also contribute to hospital negligence. For example, if a hospital’s personnel is understaffed or poorly trained, the organization as a whole may suffer.
Failure to verify that all hospital employees and physicians are appropriately licensed and certified can potentially cause severe issues. This can lead to situations in which the team is attempting to offer therapy or perform medical procedures that they are not authorized to perform.
When selecting a medical negligence lawyer, make certain that the attorney understands how to determine the entire extent of your damages. You’ll also want to select an attorney who can identify where hospital failure and systemic breakdown occurred. You’ll need this to define what hospital negligence is in Kansas City, MO, strengthen your medical negligence claim, and provide supporting evidence.
What are Examples of Hospital Negligence in Kansas City?
Hospital negligence can result in significant damage or death and involves malpractice by hospital-employed physicians, nurses, nurse’s aids, physician’s assistants, and technicians. Inadequate staffing, inadequate monitoring, and failure to execute or correctly interpret diagnostic tests are examples of hospital negligence.
A few examples of hospital negligence include:
- Misdiagnosis
- Surgery errors and unnecessary surgery
- Incomplete tests
- Treatment errors/failure to treat
- Vital signs not monitored, failure to act on vital sign problems
- Lab results misread or not used for the patient
- Medication error
- Failure to identify life-threatening issues such as a stroke or heart attack
- Failure to monitor the patient during and after treatment
- Failure to identify an emergency when it happens
- Premature patient discharge
- Administration or support staff losing or mixing up patient records
- Any hospital staff making a documentation error
- Nurses failing to sterilize equipment
- Wrongful death
Speak to a Missouri hospital negligence attorney if you have encountered any of the following instances of hospital negligence to see whether you may be eligible for compensation.
What are the Potential Causes of Hospital Negligence?
There are a lot of entirely preventable ways hospitals and medical personnel can fail patients. A lack of standard operating procedures, resources, or proper upkeep of the facility may be at the root of many of the problems.
The following are common causes of neglect in hospitals:
- Understaffing
- Lost records or test results
- Poor or lack of communication
- Improperly trained staff
- Unsafe or defective facilities
- Outdated or defective equipment
- Unsanitary practices or equipment
These kinds of oversights can lead to a variety of significant accidents, such as slips and falls, birth traumas, incorrect diagnoses of illnesses, or life-threatening infections. A patient’s quality of life may be negatively impacted by a permanent injury, necessitating lifetime medical care as well.
If you were a victim of hospital negligence in Kansas City, Ricket Law Firm would assist you in filing a medical negligence lawsuit against the hospital. To learn more about your potential settlement award and how to file, please call or email us immediately.
How to Prove Hospital Negligence in Kansas?
In order to be successful in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against a hospital, you need to be able to demonstrate that hospital staff was responsible for causing your injuries. It is essential to keep in mind that a negative outcome does not automatically mean medical negligence. Hence, it’s always the patient or plaintiff pursuing a hospital negligence case that has what is known as the “burden of proof.”
To establish medical negligence, you need to demonstrate these four elements of negligence:
- Duty of Care. The healthcare provider owed you a duty of care, which can be demonstrated by medical records demonstrating that you had a provider-patient relationship with the hospital, doctor, or nurse you are suing.
- Breach of Duty. By failing to deliver an appropriate standard of care, the healthcare provider broke their obligation or committed hospital negligence. Often, the testimony of a medical expert witness, who is another healthcare practitioner with comparable qualifications, training, and experience, is essential to illustrate the acceptable level of care in your case and how the provider strayed from it.
- Causation. The substandard care or negligent acts of the hospital and its personnel resulted in your injuries. You need to provide evidence directly linking the hospital’s negligence to the injuries you have sustained.
- Damages. You incurred losses as a result of your condition or injuries. Loss should be quantifiable, such as medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, emotional distress, etc.
In order to determine hospital negligence, you will need to gather evidence and testimony and this is possible with the help of a top-rated hospital malpractice attorney from Ricket Law Firm. Call a hospital negligence lawyer from the firm today.
What are Proofs of Hospital Malpractice Damages?
To support your claim for compensation, you must provide proof of the harm you have endured and its monetary value. Examples of evidence include:
- Bills and records from your medical treatments
- Statements about the costs of your future care as assessed by the medical experts we engage
- Documentation of lost income throughout your recovery time, such as pay stubs or an employer statement
- Accounts for your agony and suffering, as well as any other non-economic damages
What is a Medical Expert Testimony?
It might be difficult to determine what constitutes medical negligence and what does not. This is why medical malpractice cases often require the testimony of medical experts to prove that:
- The sufferer was treated below an acceptable medical standard.
- Another physician in the same situation would have acted differently and prevented patient injury.
- The defendant’s conduct is more likely than not to have caused or exacerbated the injuries you are suing for.
If you are considering bringing a lawsuit for hospital negligence, a personal injury lawyer from our firm can make the process easier and less stressful for you. We can help you prove negligence, gather relevant evidence, and secure medical expert testimonies to strengthen your case. Call us today, and let’s discuss your case!
Who Could Be Liable for Hospital Negligence?
In a hospital negligence case, each and every healthcare practitioner who contributed to the patient’s catastrophic injury may be held legally accountable for their actions. Among these are:
- Hospitals
- Doctors
- Surgeons
- Anesthesiologists
- Nurses
- Physician’s assistants
- Radiologist
- Pharmacists
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Other medical personnel
The above list is not intended to represent an exhaustive list of all potential defendants. In some instances, many parties could be held responsible for hospital malpractice. To discover which party acted negligently and caused your injuries, contact a hospital negligence attorneys to review your case and determine liability.
Are Hospitals Liable for the Negligent Conduct of Independent Medical Professionals?
Hospitals may be held accountable for the negligence of independent physicians and surgeons who act as hospital staff and use hospital resources but are neither hospital employees nor agents.
A hospital usually bears a duty to screen the competency of its medical staff and to monitor the quality of medical treatment given on its premises. A hospital can be held accountable for negligently screening the competency of its medical staff to ensure the sufficiency of medical care delivered to patients at its facility.
Liability determination in a hospital negligence scenario can be difficult, and it may occasionally involve multiple parties that could be held accountable. Working with our personal injury attorney in Kansas can help you relax and free up your time so you can concentrate on getting better while we take care of the legal aspects of your case.
What Does Compensation for Hospital Negligence Cover?
Injuries from hospital negligence frequently develop on top of pre-existing conditions, illnesses, or injuries, as is the case in many medical malpractice lawsuits. The damages may become severe as a result. Compensation from a hospital negligence lawsuit will cover the costs of the hospital’s negligence in terms of economic and non-economic damages. These may include the following:
- Additional medical expenses
- Additional surgeries required
- Lifelong treatment
- Loss wages
- Permanent injury accommodations
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Diminished quality of life
In the circumstances involving hospital malpractice and the wrongful death of a family member, a claim for damages might also seek compensation for the following reasons:
- Funeral expenses
- Lost future wages
- Lost benefits, such as insurance coverage
- Lost companionship or Loss of consortium
Regardless of the extent of your family’s suffering, our hospital negligence attorneys can assist you in obtaining the maximum compensation to which you are entitled. Every case handled by Ricket Law Firm receives individualized attention. You may be confident that we will thoroughly investigate your claim in order to decide the best course of action for you and your loved ones.
Which Factors Influence My Potential Recovery Amount?
Your compensation in a hospital negligence case will rely on a variety of circumstances unique to your situation. Examples include:
- The severity of your injury
- Patient’s age
- Loss of earning potential
- Pain and suffering
- Reduced quality of life
If you choose to file a lawsuit, a Kansas medical malpractice attorney will argue for the reasonable predicted value of these elements and negotiate on your behalf for the maximum potential recovery amount. It is impossible to assign a monetary value to many of these, but we can guarantee you that we will aggressively pursue the utmost compensation for your damages.
How Long Do You Have to Sue a Hospital for Negligence?
In Missouri, the statute of limitations for medical negligence is two years, meaning that a patient has two years from the date of injury to initiate a lawsuit. However, medical malpractice cases are unique in that individuals may not realize they have been hurt or may not realize that their injury was caused by a healthcare provider’s negligence.
What is Missouri’s Medical Malpractice Statute of Repose?
According to Missouri’s statute of repose, a patient may not initiate a medical malpractice claim if it has been more than ten years since the medical error, no matter what type of medical mistake was made or when the injury was discovered.
Are there Exceptions to Missouri’s Medical Malpractice Statute?
There are various exceptions to Missouri’s medical malpractice statute of limitations due to the risk of delayed discovery or patients not knowing about the injury. Exceptions are as follows:
- In cases where the alleged malpractice involves leaving a foreign object inside the patient’s body, the statute of limitations begins either two years from the date of the discovery of the alleged medical negligence or from the date on which the patient, using reasonable care, should have discovered such alleged negligence, whichever date occurs first.
- In cases where the alleged malpractice is a failure to inform the patient of medical test results, the statute of limitations begins either two years from the date of the discovery of the alleged negligence or from the date on which the patient should have discovered the failure to inform, whichever date comes first.
- With regard to circumstances in which the plaintiff in a medical malpractice suit is younger than 18 years of age, minors have until their 20th birthday to file a claim for medical malpractice.
- The fourth exemption pertains to cases of medical malpractice resulting in death. The Missouri statute of limitations for wrongful death specifies that an advocate has three years after a patient’s death to submit a claim for medical negligence.
There are further exclusions that go beyond what the statute specifies; therefore, a medical negligence lawyer may consider other Missouri medical malpractice rules for a case. This is why it’s crucial to speak with a lawyer from Ricket Law Firm as soon as you have a suspicion that medical negligence has happened.
Call our Top-rated Hospital Negligence Attorney in Kansas City, MO, Now!
You have been wronged by a hospital and are now receiving medical costs you cannot afford to pay. As a result of the hospital’s negligence, you may face permanent pain and incapacity as well as missed pay during your recovery. Before this situation gets even more stressful for you, please contact our legal team at Ricket Law Firm to speak with a hospital negligence attorney about what you can do to seek justice for a life altered by the negligence of another.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of hospital negligence in Kansas City, Missouri, it is imperative that you consult with an attorney as quickly as possible about your claim. Our law office will explain the process of suing a hospital as well as the subsequent steps you can take. Allow our family to assist yours. Contact us now!
