Many Canadians are increasingly reliant on emergency departments at hospitals for their medical needs. Whatever the reason for attending hospital, patients are entitled to a reasonable level of care from the nurses and physicians working the emergency department. In some cases, errors that occur in this setting can cause serious harm and may give rise to a viable claim in medical negligence.
In the vast majority of medical malpractice cases, an error in the emergency room is not the direct or only cause of injury to the patient. Usually, a medical malpractice case is brought against emergency department doctors and/or nurses because they did not appropriately diagnose or treat an issue for which care was sought. This is one reason why consulting an experienced medical malpractice lawyer is important if you believe you have suffered harms from the acts or omissions of a doctor or nurse in the emergency department because a careful assessment must be performed to evaluate what portions of the harm are attributable to the alleged negligence and which portions may be difficult to separate from the underlying health issue that brought you to the hospital in the first place.
In some cases, it will be possible to prove that the unreasonable care provided in an emergency department caused the entirety of the injury suffered. Part of providing reasonable care to patients in hospital is the requirement to diagnose and treat in a reasonable manner. For example, if you arrive at the emergency department with early signs of a stroke, or with signs of a spinal cord issue, such as cauda equina syndrome or spinal stenosis, you are entitled to receive a reasonably thorough diagnosis from the doctor who attends. When considering whether an emergency room error occurred, a medical malpractice lawyer will generally consider how your symptoms were assessed and evaluated and whether the diagnosis rendered was a reasonable one.
There are some cases that promote the idea that serious conditions should be ruled out before a doctor can attribute your symptoms to something less serious. The basic idea is that if there is a possibility of a time sensitive problem requiring treatment, that possibility should be ruled out before assuming symptoms do not require timely care.
Emergency departments in Canada are increasingly reliant on teamwork between doctors and nurses, and this can unfortunately lead to breakdowns in communication. In some situations, bad communication can result in a serious misapprehension of the seriousness of your symptoms. Cases of this kind might be brought because, for example, the triage nurse did not appropriately escalate the seriousness of a patient’s condition, because a nurse did not accurately record or report certain clinical details, or because a doctor did not perform a reasonable differential diagnosis before discharging a patient home.
In order to meet the standard of care, a doctor must perform a reasonable differential diagnosis when the circumstances warrant it. This will usually require a thorough patient history and exam. For example, if you complain of something common like back pain, an emergency room doctor should consider the seriousness and onset of the pain and perform a neurological exam. Sometimes, common symptoms can be signs of a serious underlying condition. This is why a differential diagnosis is performed to rule out something like spinal cord compression before attributing symptoms like back pain to something much less serious.
There are also situations in the emergency department where diagnostic imaging is ordered but is not interpreted correctly resulting in a missed diagnosis. Diagnosis is then usually significantly delayed because doctors rely on the radiologist’s interpretation of the imaging. Radiology errors can happen in the emergency department or in other settings (for instance, a requisition and scheduled appointment arranged by a family doctor). When a radiology error occurs, it is usually important to speak with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to understand your legal rights.
Medical malpractice cases can also be brought when a procedure performed in the emergency department context is done negligently and causes significant harm. The same core questions will be asked by a malpractice lawyer – did the doctors and/or nurses act reasonably in their decision to perform a given intervention and did they perform it with a reasonable level of care and skill. The standard of care will usually require emergency room doctors and nurses to act prudently in deciding which intervention should be performed, preparing for the procedure chosen, and in carrying out the procedure to completion, along with any necessary orders or instructions for post-procedure monitoring.
Regardless of how the harm occurred, if you have suffered an injury because of a potential mistake made by doctors or nurses in the emergency department, it is important to consult with a medical malpractice lawyer. The lawyers and staff at BIMMA are available for free, no obligation consultations to help you understand whether you may be in a position to sue to recover damages following an error in the emergency department.
