If you or a loved one had a bad experience when being treated at a hospital, damages may have been suffered as a result. The poor treatment that you or your loved one received could have caused financial damages in the form of increased medical bills and lost wages, but it could also have caused unnecessary pain and suffering. Tragically, sometimes medical malpractice can cost lives.
If you believe that the hospital or medical professionals fell short on their duties to provide competent care, it’s important that you take appropriate action. By doing so, you will be able to get justice, gain the damages that you deserve, and potentially improve the health care system. The following article is an overview of how poor communication leads to medical malpractice.
What is medical malpractice?
All medical professionals have the duty to provide the best possible care to all of their patients. When they do not act with the best interests of the patient in mind, this is known as negligence. If a hospital or medical professional’s negligence leads to physical, emotional or financial damages, it may be possible to make a medical malpractice claim.
How does medical malpractice occur through poor communication?
Mistakes can be made when doctors and other medical professionals do not properly communicate with each other. It could potentially lead to a huge range of issues in care.
One example of poor communication leading to medical malpractice is surgical errors. If the doctor who has made the recommendation for surgery misinforms the surgeon of the issues, the patient may be subject to a wrong-site surgery or face other complications.
Birth injuries can also result from poor communication. If nurses misread or fail to communicate low oxygen levels to doctors, newborn babies could suffer permanent brain damages that could have been prevented.
Poor communication can also lead to misdiagnoses. For example, if your doctor does not correctly describe your symptoms when referring you to a specialist, you may not be correctly diagnosed.
Making a medical malpractice claim could mean that you will be able to gain compensation both for the financial damages as well as the pain and suffering caused. Make sure that you take action if you want to get justice.