Doctors are not the only medical practitioners who can potentially be held liable for negligence or malpractice. Virtually any person working within healthcare who owes patients a duty of care can be liable if they fail to provide appropriate care. This can include everyone from nurses or occupational therapists to oncologists and surgeons.
The organizations or businesses that employ them also share in liability, as they are responsible for hiring and/or training qualified personnel and ensuring their employees meet their obligations to patients.
Primary Care Doctors
As the first point of contact for patients, primary care doctors have a foundational role in the health care system. Unfortunately, these doctors are not specialists, and they don’t always recognize or accurately diagnose every ailment or symptom presented to them.
There are countless ways in which a doctor could breach their duty to patients, from making a diagnostic mistake due to being overworked to being annoyed by patients they assume are being overly dramatic. Failing to take a patient seriously or misdiagnosing a serious condition can result in delays in treatment and fatal or life-altering consequences.
Primary care physicians that make diagnostic mistakes or prescribe the wrong medications can and should be held liable if their mistake results in significant injuries or deaths.
All Types of Health Care Specialists
The mistakes specialists make can be different from those commonly made by primary care doctors. These errors often involve misinterpretation of test results, mistakes during surgeries or failure to catch recognizable complications.
Why the mistake happened is less important than the results of the mistake. If a medical error leads to injuries, death or significant financial damage or pain and suffering, patients and their families deserve compensation.
Nurses and Support Staff
Registered nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, radiology techs, lab techs and a variety of other support staff in healthcare settings share in the responsibility of patient care. Their mistakes can be just as catastrophic as the mistakes of a doctor in some circumstances.
- Medical techs may incorrectly use equipment or interpret results, leading to delayed diagnosis.
- Lab techs could mishandle biological samples, leading to a misdiagnosis that results in ailments going undiagnosed and untreated.
- Pharmacists could dispense the wrong medication or mislabel prescription bottles, giving a patient drugs they’re allergic to or ones that won’t treat their condition.
- Surgical techs could fail to properly sterilize equipment or keep improper surgical count, resulting in retained surgical items (items left in the patient).
Simply put, every touch point on your healthcare journey has the potential for errors, and any error that results in financial losses or pain and suffering can potentially justify a medical malpractice claim.
Hospitals and Healthcare Networks
Clinics, hospitals or large healthcare networks can be liable for the actions of their employees via the vicarious liability doctrine. In other words, employers are responsible for their employees’ actions, including their mistakes. In certain circumstances, a patient’s injuries or death could be directly attributable to the hospital or health network’s actions, like inadequate staffing or training or failing to verify the credentials of their healthcare workers.
Healthcare Groups and Practices
Medical groups and private practices can face malpractice claims if it is found that systemic issues within the practice contributed to patient harm. This could include a lack of proper supervision, failure to maintain equipment or inadequate patient safety measures.
Get Help After Suffering an Injury or the Death of a Loved One Due to a Medical Mistake
The variety of entities and individuals that can be implicated in medical malpractice cases underscores the complexity of these claims. The number of potential defendants is just another way in which malpractice claims can become convoluted and complex, which is why injured patients and families can benefit from seeking out medical malpractice lawyers with experience investigating and unraveling these webs of liability.
The Weycer Law Firm is committed to offering personalized legal assistance to families in Houston who have been affected by medical mistakes of any kind. Going up against healthcare workers and well-funded hospitals isn’t easy, especially since the legal system is designed to give them cover. We can help explain your options and aggressively pursue justice on your behalf. Call us at (713) 668-4545 for a free case evaluation.