We Fight for You
Photo of professionals at Winckler & Harvey PLLC

Emergency room errors leading to medical malpractice

On Behalf of | Sep 22, 2021 | Medical Malpractice

If you go to an emergency room in Texas, don’t automatically believe that you will receive proper treatment. Emergency rooms are common locations for medical errors to occur, some of which can lead to severe injury or suffering.

Missing information or processing errors are common

Every year, more than 250,000 medical errors occur, many of them leading to death as well as medical malpractice lawsuits. In many hospital situations, doctors and related medical professionals have the correct information about their patients, but they process that information incorrectly. Although emergency rooms have a radically different environment than regular hospital wards with frequent interruptions and provided information that is incomplete or unreliable, a recent study indicates that medical professionals make the same types of errors with relatively the same kinds of percentages.

The most common types of errors committed by medical professionals in both emergency rooms and regular hospital wards are:
Processing errors – 45%
Verifying gathered information – 31%
Inadequate information gathering – 18%
Misjudged or premature diagnosis – 13%
Inadequate knowledge – 6%

Patients with abdominal complaints were the ones most likely to suffer from errors made by medical personnel. Frequently, errors made in the emergency room ended up in sending patients home, only to have them return several days later in worse condition with the same complaint.

Rectifying Medical Information Errors

When patients are sent home from the emergency room with an incorrect diagnosis due to one of the types of information errors, additional pain and suffering can occur, often leading to a worsening condition and in extreme cases death. Such situations often lead to lawsuits.

Determining what type of error was made is crucial in proving your claim. Make sure you gather sufficient information about the situation before filing to increase your chances of success.

FindLaw Network