Hospital Negligence Lawyers

Vero Beach, FL

When you go to a hospital for medical care, you typically expect to leave in better condition than you were when you arrived. While this is often the result, some patients find themselves with a new or worse injury or illness. This may be caused by negligence on the part of their medical provider – or the hospital–or both. 

In Florida, hospitals owe a special duty of care to patients, which includes a duty to properly hire, train, and supervise competent medical staff, such as nurses and doctors. If they fail in these duties and a patient is harmed, it could be the basis of a lawsuit. Our personal injury lawyers can help you get financial compensation for any losses that you suffered because of hospital negligence, including lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and more.

From our law offices in Florida’s Treasure Coast, Gould Cooksey Fennell advocates for victims of all types of negligence – including cases involving doctors, nurses, and hospitals. We will fight to help you get the money that you deserve for your injuries and will never charge a fee unless we recover money for you. Reach out today to schedule a free consultation with a Vero Beach hospital negligence attorney.

What Is Hospital Negligence?

Hospital negligence occurs when a healthcare facility fails to provide competent care for its patients. Under Florida law, all healthcare facilities – including hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers – have a duty to exercise due care in providing care for their patients. These duties include:

  1. Adopting written procedures for the selection of staff members and for periodic reviews of the medical care and treatment provided to patients by medical staff;
  2. Adopting a comprehensive risk management program; and
  3. Supervising medical staff and hospital personnel to ensure that the medical review and risk management processes are carried out diligently.

 

If a hospital fails in any of these duties and a patient is harmed as a result, then the hospital can be held liable for any injuries that result.

Many people are more familiar with medical malpractice based on errors committed by the doctor or nurse.  For example, if a doctor incorrectly reads test results and fails to diagnose a patient’s cancer, it could be the basis of a medical malpractice lawsuit. 

Hospital negligence is more focused on administrative negligence, such as:

  • Understaffing
  • Negligent hiring (such as failing to check that medical staff has a valid license before hiring them)
  • Lack of training and/or supervision
  • Improperly discharging a patient
  • Mismanagement of patient records
  • Poor sanitation practices 

 

For example, consider a situation where a surgeon at a hospital is regularly performing medically unnecessary surgeries. A patient could potentially sue the doctor for any harm that they suffered. They may also file a personal injury lawsuit against the hospital for its failure to adequately supervise the physician, such as by not performing required medical reviews.

Hospitals owe a duty of care to their patients. When they fail in that duty, their patients can suffer serious injury – including a worsening of the illness that they originally sought treatment for at the facility. Our law firm will fight to help you get compensation for any losses caused by hospital negligence.

Filing a Lawsuit for Hospital Negligence

Medical and hospital negligence lawsuits are a type of personal injury claim. They are based on a theory of negligence, which is the failure to use the level of care that a reasonable person would use in a similar situation.

Hospitals owe their patients a much higher duty of care because of the special relationship between patients and these facilities. To prove that a hospital provided negligent care, you must show the following elements:

 

  1. Duty: The hospital owed you a duty of care because you were a patient at the facility.
  2. Breach: The hospital breached (violated) this duty by failing to do what a reasonably competent facility would have done in a similar situation.
  3. Causation: This violation directly led to your injuries, which may be either a new injury or illness or the worsening of an existing injury or illness.
  4. Damages: Your injuries resulted in damages or losses.

 

Proving that a hospital was negligent can be challenging. Your Vero Beach hospital negligence lawyer will gather evidence to demonstrate that the hospital failed to meet its duty of care. This may include documentation such as medical bills, medical records, photos and videos of your injuries before and after hospitalization, witness statements, and administrative documents from the hospital itself (such as policies and procedures and training records). Your attorney will also work with an expert witness with experience in the standard of care for hospitals who can offer their opinion as to the hospital’s failures.

For example, consider a scenario where a patient contracted an infection at a hospital because of improperly sterilized surgical instruments. Evidence may show that the hospital did not have policies and procedures in place to ensure that their staff were using the equipment properly, such as training on how to sterilize instruments. An expert witness may also testify that it is common practice that hospitals conduct specific training on the use of this equipment because sterilization is so critical to patient health and safety.

Many hospital negligence cases are filed concurrently with medical negligence claims. When a patient is injured, it is important to hold all at-fault parties responsible. In many situations, there isn’t just one failure by a single provider or administrator – there is often a cascading series of failures that lead to a patient being harmed.

Hospital negligence cases can be complex due to the nature of medical bills, hospital records, and other documentation. Hospitals and their insurance companies also tend to aggressively defend against these cases. For each case, our goal is to help our clients get maximum compensation for their injuries while minimizing the emotional toll that litigation can take on clients who are already suffering from injuries or illnesses that were caused or made worse by the very facility that was supposed to help them.

Most personal injury claims are resolved outside of court. We will do our best to help our clients get a fair settlement without going through the stress of a trial. However, if the insurance company won’t give you the money that you deserve for your losses, we won’t hesitate to take the fight to the courtroom where we will ask a jury to return a verdict in your favor.

What Compensation Am I Entitled to in a Medical Negligence Case?

In personal injury cases, victims may be able to recover financial compensation – known as damages – for all of their injuries.  This falls into three categories:

  1. Economic damages pay for direct, objective losses that can be documented, such as medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, future medical expenses, and any costs associated with disability, such as renovating a home to make it accessible and medical equipment.
  2. Non-economic damages pay for intangible losses, including pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, loss of consortium, scarring, and disfigurement.
  3. Punitive damages are awarded in cases involving reckless or intentional conduct as a way to punish a wrongdoer. In Florida, punitive damages are capped at the greater of $500,000 or 3 times compensatory (economic + non-economic) damages.

 

Importantly, medical malpractice cases are treated differently in Florida from other types of personal injury cases. The Florida legislature has repeatedly enacted laws to limit the amount of noneconomic damages that an injured patient can recover for a medical negligence claim. The Florida Supreme Court has overturned many of these laws. 

Currently, there is a $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages for most medical negligence claims. A court can override this limit if it determines that manifest injustice would result because of the severe harm to the patient caused by a catastrophic injury.

Given these limits, it is important to work with a Florida hospital negligence attorney with a track record of success. Our law firm understands how to maximize recoveries for our clients in medical and hospital negligence claims. We will work with you to help you get justice for your injuries. 

How Long Do I Have to File a Hospital Negligence Lawsuit?

Generally, the statute of limitations for medical negligence cases is 2 years. This means that you have 2 years from the date of your injury to file a claim. However, hospital negligence claims are a bit different than other types of personal injury cases because you might not discover the issue immediately. For hospital negligence cases, the statute of limitations begins to run when you discover the injury or illness.

While 2 years is a lot of time, it can go by quickly when you are dealing with doctor’s appointments and therapies. More importantly, important evidence may not be available after time has elapsed. To protect your rights, contact Gould Cooksey Fennell as soon as possible to schedule a free consultation with a Vero Beach hospital negligence attorney. 

The Hospital Offered Me a Settlement. Do I Need to Hire a Lawyer?

If the hospital offered you a settlement, you may be tempted to take the money. However, in most cases, this would be a mistake. The hospital and its insurance company do not have your best interests at heart. Instead, they are motivated by a desire to resolve your claim for as little money as possible. 

To protect yourself  – and to get maximum compensation for your injuries – you should contact an experienced hospital negligence lawyer. They can handle all communications with the insurance company for you and will work tirelessly to get you fair compensation. In Vero Beach, contact Gould Cooksey Fennell to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with a member of our legal team.

Injured by Hospital Negligence? We Can Help.

Hospitals have a responsibility to make sure that their facilities are safe for patients, including by providing appropriate staffing, hiring competent staff, and having policies and procedures in place to ensure patient safety. Unfortunately, too many hospitals fail to meet this basic standard of care, causing harm to patients who seek care from them. Our law firm will advocate for you and protect your legal rights.


 At Gould Cooksey Fennell, we understand how devastating it can be to be harmed by the very facility that was supposed to help you get better. We work hard to help our clients get the compensation that they deserve for their losses. To learn more or to schedule a free consultation with a Vero Beach hospital negligence lawyer, call our law offices at 772-742-5205 or fill out our online contact form.

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Our firm is here to take that burden off of our clients and handle their claim completely. We will help you get the compensation you deserve.

Notable Medical Malpractice Settlements and Verdicts

A 52 year old man arrived at a hospital ER with a UTI, resulting in negligent, non-emergency intubation that caused the catastrophic anoxic brain injury leading to his death. After a trial involving complex medical and technical issues relating to critical care medicine, infectious disease, hospital administration, and electronic medical record systems, the family obtained a wrongful death settlement of $31.9 million.

Medical Negligence claim arising out of a breach in the standard of care by failing to follow physician’s orders and hospital policies with regard to timely assessments of the Plaintiff and her vital signs; failing to recognize signs of respiratory distress; and failing to follow hospital policies regarding recording and disposal of PCA morphine.

Trial arising from failure to diagnosis colon perforation after a laparoscopic hysterectomy surgery causing permanent injury to the Plaintiff. After a three week trial a Martin County jury rejected the Defendants’ position finding the hospital 70% responsible for Mrs. Moore’s damages and the physician 30% responsible. The award included just over $600,000 for past medical expenses, $370,000 in future medical care, and non-economic damages of almost $2 million.

Gould Cooksey Fennell served as Co-Counsel in a Georgia case involving alleged misdiagnosis/mistreatment of preeclampsia resulting in the death of a 39 year old mother.

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