Once you check into a hospital, you expect medical practitioners to take care of your health diligently. These practitioners aim to exercise the highest standard of care and give you no cause to believe anything will go wrong. However, in case of any unfortunate event of negligence that leads to your further decline in health, you could be entitled to seek compensation for medical malpractice.
What Steps Should You Take to Petition a Hospital for Medical Malpractice?
A lawyer based in Kentucky advises on the following steps on how to sue a hospital for medical malpractice:
1. Seek the Services of a Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Filing for medical malpractice against an established institution like a hospital means you work against a group of qualified lawyers. Individually working against these lawyers may prove futile because of their wealth of experience and knowledge in such cases. The lawyers working on the hospital’s defence team are determined to give you the lowest settlement offer possible.
Getting a medical malpractice lawyer on your side will help determine your case’s weight and the compensation you deserve. They manage to do this with their knowledge of the law and years of experience dealing with medical negligence cases.
2. Avoid Publicizing the Event of Medical Negligence
Consider thinking twice before posting on social or mainstream media about your lawsuit. Lawyers now gather information about medical negligence from media posts. Imagine how embarrassing it could be if you over share information on a medical misdiagnosis only for the opposing counsel to use it against your defence in a court of law.
3. Determine Whether the Medical Practitioner in Question Is Independent or Employed by the Hospital
After the incidence of medical misdiagnosis causing harm occurs, you need to determine who you will sue. While some practitioners work as employees of the hospital, others work as consultants contracted by the hospital. Before you file the malpractice claim, determine who you will sue to avoid filing the wrong medical malpractice suit.
Your medical malpractice lawyer will help you determine who is legally responsible for the malpractice based on their terms of engagement with the hospital.
4. Secure the Necessary Medical Records
Medical records serve as crucial evidence that will play a major role in determining the outcome of your claim. Request the hospital for your medical records and take good care of them for the duration of the case to ensure they do not get lost. It would be a wise decision to make extra copies for when you lose them, and the original hospital records are now irretrievable.
5. Have a Medical Assessment
A medical assessment, usually by a different physician, helps determine whether your case has merit based on the injuries you sustained. The physician evaluates your medical records to determine whether there was carelessness that resulted in your decline in health and if your action to sue is timely.
The physician will give you a certificate of merit, which serves as substantial evidence for your case. The document exhaustively explains that you sustained injuries or a decline in health because of a violation of the standards of medical care.
It Is Possible to Recover After Suffering from Medical Malpractice
Sustaining unintended injuries following medical malpractice can drain you emotionally, physically and financially. Petitioning the medical practitioner creates an opportunity to get the compensation necessary to cater to your medical costs. While the injuries may be painful, getting legal redress will help you heal not only physically but also mentally.