Nursing errors may occur in a variety of contexts, the most common of which include hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. If you or a loved one sustained personal injuries and damages due to a nursing error, an Albany nursing error lawyer could investigate your claim and help you recover monetary compensation for your injuries and damages. Read on to learn more about how a skilled injury attorney could help your case today.
Defining Nursing Errors
When nurses and nursing assistants are negligent or unresponsive, patients and residents can sustain slip-and-fall injuries and other injuries such cuts and bruises, scarring, soft tissue injuries, broken bones, hemorrhaging, internal bleeding, spinal cord injuries, paralysis, and in the worst scenarios, death. Albany nursing errors typically consist of one or more of the following:
- Medication distribution errors
- Failing to maintain sanitary conditions at a medical facility
- Inadequate supervision and treatment of patients
- Mishandling or dropping patients
- Incomplete recordkeeping
- Improper monitoring of a patient’s vital statistics
Does a Nursing Error Have to Require a Specific Action?
In some circumstances, a lack of specific action may also be construed as a nursing error. If, for example, a doctor or medical facility staff member fails to account for a patient’s medical history or preexisting medical conditions, consider medication warnings and potential drug interactions, call a doctor or specialist when necessary, or properly and promptly respond to a patient’s medical needs and concerns, they may be found liable for any injuries or damages sustained by their patients as a result.
What is the Role of Negligence in Nursing Errors?
Carelessness and negligence in the context of nursing usually fall within the scope of medical malpractice. To prove medical malpractice, an independent medical professional will typically need to review the injured patient’s medical records and testify that the patient’s standard of care fell below that of a reasonable health care provider, thereby amounting to medical negligence.
Proximate Causation
The injured patient must also be able to show that the medical provider’s negligence—or that of the hospital or nursing facility—proximately resulted in the injuries and damages sustained. In other words, there must be a causal connection between the nursing error (i.e. the negligence) and the injuries and damages the patient or resident sustained under the circumstances.
Contact an Albany Nursing Error Lawyer Today
If you or someone you love sustained serious injuries in an Albany hospital, medical office, nursing home, or assisted living facility, you may be eligible for a nursing error claim in civil court. An Albany nursing error lawyer could help with every stage of your case, working to evaluate the facts of your claim, undertaking the appropriate investigations, and seeking monetary recovery on your behalf.
Under most circumstances, a nursing error claim must be filed within two and a half years of the date on which the alleged malpractice occurred. Because of this statute of limitations, time may be of the essence, so do not put off checking on your case—you may be surprised at what options are available for you. Consider reaching out to a qualified Albany nursing error lawyer today to learn more.