Medical Malpractice
In Texas, generally, a hospital is not responsible for malpractice injuries or death that is caused by an independent doctor or a physician, because the doctor is not an employee of a hospital. The doctor is independent of the hospital in most cases. However, if the doctor is an employee of the hospital, then the hospital maybe responsible for the doctor’s actions that are below the standard of care and result in preventable injury.
When Is A Hospital Liable For The Harms Caused To A Patient In A Hospital?
A hospital or clinic may be liable for any wrongs or negligence caused in the duties it owes directly to the patient. This can include acts of negligence caused by its nursing staff, diagnostic staff, and other hospital employees. A hospital or a clinic may also be responsible for the failure to provide safe hospital facilities and safe hospital equipment.
While you stay at a hospital and under their care, that hospital is required to make reasonable attempts to know your physical and mental conditions and issues. Hospital negligence cases are often called healthcare liability claims and they are subject to special Texas laws that provide strict requirements to someone wanting to bring a healthcare liability claim against a hospital or clinic.
Hospital negligence and death cases are also very expensive to bring forward because they require several experts, often in more than one area of medicine to evaluate the actions of the various medical providers from the doctors to the nurses to the staff to the radiologists, to the pharmacy and to many others who may be responsbile for the claim and the injuries to present the claim through to a lawsuit. For this reason, only the most severe and catastrophic medical injury claims are accepted by the majority of attorneys.
What Happens If I Just Found Out That A Hospital Did Something Wrong To Me While I Was Admitted To The Hospital Or Clinic And It Is Past The 2-year Time Limit?
Most of the time limit cases involving a healthcare liability claim are strictly construed against the patient and in favor of doctors at hospitals, at least I believe this to be so in Texas. However, there are two important exceptions that may allow you to hold wrongdoers accountable in a hospital or clinic malpractice injury case. The first is a situation where you had no opportunity to discover the wrong or the malpractice. For example, there have been several cases where a medical instrument or a foreign object has been left inside a surgical patient and it did not cause any injury until after the two years had run out. A second exception is when a hospital or clinic knowingly conceals or alters information in a fraudulent manner to hide their wrongs from you. This is called fraudulent concealment. Unfortunately, these latter two situations can and do happen in Texas hospitals and clinics.
For more information on Medical Malpractice Claims In Texas, A Free Case Evaluation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (210) 225-2828 today.