Can You Sue Both the Doctor and the Hospital for Malpractice?

We rely on physicians and healthcare facilities to provide exceptional care. While many healthcare providers meet and even exceed the standard of care expected of them, medical malpractice is a growing problem. With one in three physicians being sued for malpractice during their career, patients are well within their rights to pursue legal remedies following medical negligence.

At Wilt Injury Lawyers, our medical malpractice attorneys who serve Bowling Green are committed to assisting individuals who have fallen victim to medical negligence. If you or a loved one has experienced injuries in a hospital setting, our legal team would like to hear from you.

What is Medical Malpractice?

Each year, approximately 20,000 medical malpractice suits are filed in the United States. Of these cases, 795,000 people will experience permanent disability or death. Medical malpractice occurs whenever a healthcare professional or facility fails to meet the standard of care, resulting in injury to the patient. To recover, you must demonstrate that a physician’s actions or inaction caused you measurable losses. In a medical malpractice suit, this often involves the costs of treatments, rehabilitative therapies, and lost wages.

The standard of care will vary on a case-by-case basis. This standard is determined by assessing what actions a physician in the same specialty would have taken when faced with the same or similar circumstances. In short, if your physician failed to provide appropriate treatment and you suffered as a result, then you should consider taking legal recourse.

Suing a Doctor versus a Medical Facility

If you suffered injuries in a hospital setting, you may be able to sue both the doctor and the medical facility. The circumstances behind your medical malpractice claim will depend on which party made the error and if the hospital employed your treating provider.

When Can I Sue the Doctor?

The Bluegrass State is no stranger to medical malpractice claims, with over 4,000 such claims being filed in the last five years. Although hospitals employ various staff to tend to patient care, nurses, medical assistants, and other staff rely on doctors to properly diagnose and treat patients. In a medical facility, physicians are commonly held liable for errors that occur in two settings: the emergency room and the operating room. Common examples of physician negligence include misdiagnoses, delayed diagnoses, or various surgical errors (improper monitoring during surgery, leaving a surgical instrument behind, or medication dosing errors).

When Can I Sue the Hospital?

In contrast, the hospital or medical facility may be held liable if a systemic error caused your injury or a worsening of your condition. Examples of hospital negligence include faulty medical equipment, unsanitary conditions, or mixing up patient charts, to name a few. Each of these scenarios poses a risk to the patient’s life.

Switching patient charts can result in the wrong patient undergoing surgery or the correct procedure being performed on the wrong side of the body. An example of this would be two patients who are scheduled for below-the-knee amputations. While one patient is undergoing surgery to have their left leg removed, the other patient is expected to have their right leg removed. Mixing up these patient charts can result in devastating outcomes.

Although hospitals have implemented safety measures, such as “time-outs” to identify the patient and confirm the scheduled procedure (including the specific body part to be operated on), mistakes still occur.

Suing Both a Doctor and a Medical Facility

In some situations, you may be able to act against both the doctor and the medical facility. For example, if your doctor is found negligent and hospital administration did not conduct proper screening before hiring, you would be able to act against both parties. Alternatively, if the hospital failed to monitor your condition and your physician delayed treatment properly, this scenario could warrant naming both the doctor and hospital as defendants in a malpractice suit.

In some situations, even if the hospital may not have done anything wrong, if the physician is a hospital employee, you can name both parties in your lawsuit. Known as the doctrine of respondeat superior, if a doctor is acting in the scope of their employment, the hospital can be held liable for any negligence that occurred. Even so, the number of physicians employed as hospital employees exceeds the number used as independent contractors. Physicians are often employed by a physician’s group (especially ER physicians), in which case, the group may be named as a defendant under the same doctrine of respondent superior.

Guidance While Dealing with Medical Complexities

Medical malpractice suits are inherently complex, from determining what actions are considered negligent to which parties should be sued. Medical malpractice cases require that relevant medical evidence be retrieved and interpreted, and it is best left to experts in their field. At Wilt Injury Lawyers, our medical malpractice lawyers collaborate with a network of leading physicians in their respective fields. We rely on these expert witnesses to review your medical records and determine if there was a breach of the standard of care. By building these connections, we ensure that we make a medically sound case against the appropriate parties.

Speak with Our Kentucky Medical Malpractice Lawyers Today

Although we put our trust in medical professionals to help us feel better when we have fallen ill or are injured, they are not invincible. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, with over 400,000 errors being considered preventable. At Wilt Injury Lawyers, our attorneys who serve Bowling Green devote professional work to seeking justice on behalf of injured persons. Learn more about pursuing your potential medical malpractice claim. Contact us online or call today to schedule your free consultation.