Any personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit filed in a Baton Rouge civil court is based on negligence or fault that leads to death or personal injury. In many medical malpractice lawsuits, hospitals are held liable for negligence. It is not necessarily the public or private hospital’s own negligence but one or more of its medical staff or an entity or party directly involved in the patient’s medical care making a poor decision.
Hospital Negligence
Hospitals are responsible for the actions of their medical staff, which typically consist of licensed health care providers like physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners. The following could play roles in medical malpractice lawsuits:
- Before hiring staff, the hospital must make inquiries into the applicant’s licensing, training and education.
- If a hospital does not make reasonable inquiries and a staff member’s negligence causes injuries, the hospital could be held accountable.
- In such a case, the hospital could be accused of negligent retention or supervision.
- Before granting attending physicians privileges at the facility, the hospital must investigate their credentials.
- A hospital can be held liable for allowing a physician to treat patients if it knew or should have been aware of the physician’s incompetence.
- Hospitals must ensure that there are always sufficient numbers of registered nurses on duty.
- Patients could hold the hospital liable for injuries suffered during a shortage of on-duty nursing staff.
- If hospital staff fail to follow orders issued by patients’ private attending physicians, the hospital could be held liable.
Having stated that, a hospital could also face liability allegations if staff members followed the orders of a private physician, knowing that the treatment plan is contraindicated without making reasonable inquiries.
Medical malpractice is a complicated field of law, and these are but some of the circumstances that could make hospitals liable for medical malpractice claims. People in Baton Rouge who believe their injuries or adverse health conditions resulted from the negligence of licensed medical hospital staff might have grounds to file lawsuits in a civil court.
