When you’re admitted to the hospital, you expect to get the medical care you need to make a full recovery. Despite this expectation, you might find yourself in a position where it seems like doctors and hospital staff are all too eager to discharge you before you feel you’ve adequately recovered.
If you’ve ever found yourself in this situation, you may have wondered whether or not your discharge was legally appropriate. In other words, is it possible for an early discharge to rise to the level of medical malpractice?
Medical Malpractice & Hospital Discharge
Hospitals have a vested interest in keeping beds open for new patients. Not only are they able to treat more patients by discharging recovered ones, but this turnover can have clear implications for the hospital’s financial interests.
It’s not uncommon for patients to be relocated to different parts of the hospital according to their health status. Ideally, they are discharged once their health significantly improves and keeping them in the care of hospital doctors and nurses is no longer necessary.
In some cases, patients are discharged early. This means they haven’t fully recovered from their condition and are expected to do so.
This is a bit of a calculated gamble on the hospital’s part because doctors and administrators can incur liability for medical malpractice if a patient discharged early doesn’t improve and has to be admitted to the same or another hospital.
The Medical Standard of Care Matters
When evaluating an early discharge in terms of medical malpractice, your attorney will consider the medical standard of care. This refers to the treatment you should have reasonably received from a competent and trained physician. The medical standard of care is contrasted with the care you actually received to ascertain if someone may have been negligent in rendering medical care and treatment.
If your attorney believes that your early discharge violated the medical standard of care you should have received, you may have a medical malpractice claim. This means you can initiate legal action and take a step toward fighting to recover financial compensation for damages such as medical bills that you suffered as a result of a negligent early discharge.
Contact the Law Office of David Kates
If you would like to learn more about legal options that may be available to you, reach out to the Law Office of David Kates for help. We have assisted many previous clients with medical malpractice claims, helping them achieve recoveries for damages that added unnecessary financial and emotional strain on their lives.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, please contact the Law Office of David Kates online today.