1. MEDICATION ERRORS: This speak for itself. Given the wrong dosage, wrong medication, drug interactions plus a variety of errors; here are some common types.
FDA list:
- incomplete patient information (not knowing about patients' allergies, other medicines they are taking, previous diagnoses, and lab results, for example);
- unavailable drug information (such as lack of up-to-date warnings);
- miscommunication of drug orders, which can involve poor handwriting, confusion between drugs with similar names, misuse of zeroes and decimal points, confusion of metric and other dosing units, and inappropriate abbreviations;
- lack of appropriate labeling as a drug is prepared and repackaged into smaller units; and
- environmental factors, such as lighting, heat, noise, and interruptions, that can distract health professionals from their medical tasks.
2. DIAGNOSIS FAILURES: Diagnosis failures are defined as instances where patients claim an incorrect diagnosis delayed their treatment and/or resulted in improper treatment. It is a common claim, particularly in cancer treatment; it often happens in emergency rooms, but it also occurs on med-surgery floors and in radiology when reading fracture and mammography X-rays.
3. NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION: These involve cases where patients allege they were injured when their activities, or the activities of other patients, were not sufficiently monitored. This claim is most often lodged against teaching hospitals where medical students, residents and fellows are sometimes assumed to be stand-ins for absent attending physicians. Dangers arise when a rogue, overconfident trainee tries to resolve a problem without adequate supervision. To a lesser extent, this may involve nurse practitioners and physician assistants as well.
4. DELAYED TREATMENT: These are instances in which patients allege treatment was unnecessarily or unreasonably delayed. In some cases, patients claim the delay caused additional injury. Hospitals lose these cases at trial 39 percent of the time.
5. FAILURE TO OBTAIN CONSENT: These involve instances where patients contend they were not given adequate information to make an informed decision about their treatment. Hospital leaders have worked on correcting this problem for years, and find it surprising that the problem still persists. A typical example would involve a patient who dies from anesthesia, and his family claims no one spoke to them about risks. Patients win these cases at trial only 26 percent of the time.
6. LACK OF PROPER CREDENTIALING OR TECHNICAL SKILL: This claim is made when doctors perform procedures or surgeries for which they have little experience or inadequate skill.
7. UNEXPECTED DEATH: Death is unavoidable, and interventions futile in certain instances as, for example, when patients do not know they will have an allergic reaction to medication. However, there are ways to prevent some deaths.
8. IATROGENIC INJURY, NOSOCOMIAL AND WOUND INFECTIONS, FRACTURES: The Centers for Disease Control estimates that two million U.S. patients acquire infections in hospitals each year, and about 90,000 of these patients die as a result. Infections also cause care complications. Additionally, patients frequently claim they were injured when they attempted to leave their beds without assistance, when they were allowed to move about while highly medicated, or when they were assaulted or otherwise injured by an unattended patient. Of all types of malpractice cases, patients have the highest chance--45 percent--of winning these cases at trial according to the 2002 Jury Verdict Research report.
9. PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS: Patients sometimes come out of surgery or procedures with unrealistic expectations of what they will be able to accomplish when they return home. They could experience unexpected paralysis; they may not be able to resume normal activities such as driving; their relationships may be unexpectedly stressed.
10. LACK OF TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION: Particularly in surgical and obstetrical areas, when different staff members monitor patients over time, they may see worrisome signs and fail to let team members know. This often happens in cases when hospitalized women are in labor or when surgical nurses, watching patients undergo long surgeries, notice warning signs of patient distress but are requested not to speak to surgeons who are concentrating. It is also common when patients are transferred from one doctor to another, or from one hospital floor to another.
Your only recourse is knowledge and malpractice lawyers.