When you or a loved one experiences a medical emergency, you expect prompt and appropriate care. However, in some cases, delays in treatment in the emergency room can cause serious injuries or even death.
If you or a loved one has been a victim of delayed treatment in an emergency room in Louisville, Kentucky, our Louisville delayed treatment attorneys can help you get the compensation you need. Call Gray & White law at 888-450-4456 to schedule a free consultation and learn more.
Understanding the Emergency Room Triage Process in Kentucky
Emergency room triage is the process of assessing a patient’s condition to determine the order in which they should receive treatment. Triage is necessary because emergency rooms have limited resources, and patients with more serious conditions require immediate attention.
In Kentucky, emergency rooms are required to use a standardized triage system that prioritizes patients based on the severity of their conditions. The system uses a five-level scale, with Level 1 being the most urgent and Level 5 being the least urgent.
Causes of Delayed Treatment in Emergency Rooms and Hospitals in Kentucky
Unfortunately, delays in treatment in emergency rooms and hospitals in Kentucky can occur for a variety of reasons, including:
- Understaffing: Emergency rooms are often understaffed, which can lead to longer wait times and delays in treatment. Understaffing can also cause staff to be overworked and fatigued, which can lead to errors or negligence.
- Staff fatigue: Working in an emergency room is demanding and stressful, and staff may become fatigued during long shifts. Fatigue can impair judgment and lead to mistakes.
- Lack of training: Emergency room staff require specialized training to handle a wide range of medical emergencies. If staff members do not receive adequate training, they may not be able to recognize and respond to emergencies quickly and effectively.
- Failure to follow procedures: Emergency rooms have procedures in place to ensure that patients receive timely and appropriate care. However, if staff members fail to follow these procedures, delays in treatment can occur.
Liability for Damages When an Emergency Room Delay in Kentucky Causes Serious Injuries
When delayed treatment in an emergency room causes serious injuries, the hospital, emergency room, and staff members may be liable for damages. To establish liability, the victim must prove that:
- The staff members owed a duty of care to the patient
- The staff members breached that duty of care by failing to provide timely and appropriate treatment
- The breach of duty caused the patient’s injuries; and
- The injuries resulted in damages, such as medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering
Proving these elements can be challenging, as medical malpractice cases often involve complex medical issues and require expert testimony.
How We Can Help Victims of Delayed Hospital Treatment in Louisville
If you or a loved one has been a victim of delayed treatment in an emergency room in Louisville, our Louisville delayed treatment attorneys can help. We have extensive experience handling medical malpractice cases and can help you pursue the compensation you deserve.
Our attorneys will investigate your case, gather evidence, and consult with medical experts to determine whether medical malpractice occurred. If we determine that medical malpractice occurred, we will work to negotiate a settlement or pursue a lawsuit on your behalf.
We understand that a medical malpractice case can be both emotionally and financially challenging. That is why we work on a contingency fee basis, which means we don’t get paid unless we recover compensation for you.
Call Gray & White Law to Schedule a Free Consultation
If you have suffered serious harm or lost a loved one due to delayed treatment at an emergency room or urgent care clinic in Louisville, we can help. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and resources to help you pursue the compensation you deserve. Call Gray & White Law at 888-450-4456 to schedule a free consultation.
FAQs
How long is too long to wait for medical attention in an emergency room?
Unfortunately, we can’t give you a precise time when an emergency room wait crosses the line from frustrating to negligent. An hour wait, for example, for two patients at the same emergency room could be frustrating for both patients, but is not necessarily emergency room negligence for both of them.
When you think about whether your wait for emergency room treatment was too long, we encourage you to think about whether the delay was reasonable considering:
- The emergency room’s size and staffing. Before deciding if your wait time was reasonable, you need to know more about the capacity of the emergency room and how many staff members were available when you were there.
- The other patients in the emergency room. The order in which you should be seen depends not only on your medical condition but also on the symptoms of other patients in the emergency room at the same time. For example, if other people in the emergency room present with potentially dangerous conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, or aneurysms, then it could affect your wait time.
- Your symptoms. Emergency room staff have a responsibility to triage patients. That means that if you exhibit signs of a medical emergency and prompt treatment is needed to save your life or prevent lifelong disability, you should be seen before someone with a less immediate medical need.
- Training of emergency room intake staff. Triage is a difficult process, and emergency room intake staff must be appropriately trained on how to do it.
- Compliance with emergency room procedures. Emergency rooms should have procedures for intake, diagnosis, and treatment. You need to know what those procedures are and if they were followed in your case.
Can I be turned away from an emergency room because I can’t pay?
You need immediate health care to save your life or to prevent you from suffering unnecessary pain and medical complications, but you don’t have health insurance. You worry that you will get to the emergency room and be turned away, resulting in a dangerous delay in your medical care.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) protects patients who can’t pay from being turned away from emergency rooms. The law applies to all hospital emergency rooms that participate in Medicare, which is the vast majority of hospitals in the United States.
Even if you can’t pay your medical bills, EMTALA requires the emergency room hospital to:
- Conduct an appropriate medical screening examination to determine if you have an emergency medical condition
- Stabilize you if you suffer from an emergency medical condition
You can only be transferred or discharged if the move will not cause a significant worsening of your condition.
If the emergency room fails to assess and stabilize your medical condition before transferring or discharging you and you suffer physical harm as a result, you may sue the hospital for your injuries.
To recover damages in an EMTALA lawsuit, you will have to prove that you were treated differently from other patients because of your inability to pay. You may recover damages for the injuries you suffered when the emergency room failed to treat you, and the hospital may be subject to fines or changes in their Medicare provider agreements.
Our lawyers and staff nurse want to help you get the recovery you deserve. You won’t be charged any legal fees unless your case is successfully resolved. To learn more about your rights and about what you can do if you suffered a delay in medical treatment injury at a Kentucky emergency room, please contact our experienced attorneys today for a free initial consultation so that you can make an informed decision about how to protect your legal rights.