There is an awareness that hospital treatment can do harm as well as good. When a hospital is not thorough in its disinfection and sterilization, this may lead to patients acquiring infections. These infections can be defined as those that get to a patient within 48 hours of being admitted or within 30 days after receiving medical care. According to research, most of these infections are related to adverse drug events or surgical complications. When a hospital is careful enough to maintain the right sterilization, such as used of alcohol-based hand rub, this simple task could go a long way in reducing morbidity and saving patients’ lives.
If you or your loved one has acquired infections in a hospital, you may have a right to sue for medical malpractice.
Understanding Hospital Acquired Infections
There are many ways in which one can acquire hospital infections, this could be through bacteria viral or even fungal pathogens. When a hospital fails to follow the set standards of cleanliness of any treating environment, this may result in such infections. When such infections are treated quickly, they may not pose any health danger to a patient. However, when such infections go undiagnosed, they will not be treated, and hence the patient may suffer as a result. In most cases, such acts happen due to medical negligence that may lead a patient to undergo a lot of pain and frustrations. Typically a patient can acquire hospital infections in three ways:
- Iatrogenic infections:These are infections related to illness resulting from treatment, medical examination, intervention, or any other harmful complication. Iatrogenesis doesn’t have to emanate from medical negligence; it could be an adverse effect of a certain medical treatment such as chemotherapy. It involves negligence when there is a mistake in surgery or the doctor prescribing the wrong therapy.
- Patients’ associated risks:This could include the time which a patient stays in the hospital due to the severity of the illness or injury suffered. It depends much more on the patient’s immune during the time of the visit to the hospital. In such as case, it may be hard to prove medical negligence. However, with experienced medical experts, one may have a successful claim.
- Hospital environment:Infections may emanate from the way a hospital setting is handled in terms of cleanliness. For instance, a hospital may be overcrowded with a patient’s concentration; there may be issues with the sterility of medical devices used to perform surgery or any other activity. If it’s determined that a patient suffers infection from such, the hospital may be liable for medical negligence.
When seeking compensation for such negligence, it becomes tough to determine how infections happened or were transmitted. Therefore, the hospital is always on the hook. To file a claim against a hospital, you can consider having the best Anchorage lawyer to guide you on how to handle your case.
Filing A Claim Against the Hospital
If you have acquired an infection in a hospital, you have the right to bring up a claim against the hospital for medical malpractice. However, it is worth keeping in mind that not every hospital infection may qualify for medical malpractice. If a doctor or any other health care provider acted negligently and contributed to the patient’s infection, the hospital may not be liable. For any claim to be successful there must be:
- Substantive examination of how the infection could have occurred
- Why the infection was not diagnosed
- Why the infection was not treated
- And whether the infection could have been prevented.
To prove the above, you will need to have a qualified medical expert who can evaluate your situation and determine whether your infections were acquired in the hospital. He/she will decide whether the hospital followed the right medical standard of care when you were undergoing treatment. For instance, if surgery was being performed with unsterilized instruments, the infection could be preventable. Again, if the infection was diagnosed and the doctor failed to treat it, it could also amount to negligence. The reason is because a doctor is capable of diagnosing HCA by sight or symptoms. Then, in that case, you may have reasonable grounds of success in your medical malpractice claim against the hospital in question.
Getting Help From A Medical Malpractice Lawyer
If you or your loved one has started exhibiting symptoms such as fever, cough, nausea, or problem with urinating, among other issues during the stay in the hospital, you need to be checked or have your loved one checked. With such symptoms, patients’ immune system is compromised since they are still weak from their condition. When such acts emanate from acquired infection, this could be due to negligence; the hospital may be held liable.
Thinking of filing a medical malpractice claim? it would be better to hire or get advice from an experienced medical malpractice lawyer who understands the law and procedures in your state.
