Emergency rooms serve as critical access points for urgent medical care in Kansas City and throughout the country. As a patient seeking emergency treatment, you have specific legal rights designed to ensure you receive appropriate care regardless of your circumstances. Below, the experienced medical malpractice lawyers on the Fowler Pickert Eisenmenger Norfleet team outline those rights and explain what constitutes an emergency room error from both medical and legal perspectives.
Understanding Your Rights as an Emergency Room Patient
Every patient who enters a Kansas City emergency room has specific rights that protect against negligent care and provide a foundation for potential legal action if they're violated. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law that requires hospitals to provide emergency medical treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of their ability to pay. These rights include:
Right to a Medical Screening Examination
You have the right to a medical screening examination (MSE) to determine if you have an emergency medical condition. This evaluation must be performed by qualified medical personnel and should be thorough enough to identify critical conditions.
Right to Treatment for an Emergency Condition
If the screening reveals an emergency condition, you have the right to treatment until your condition stabilizes. The hospital cannot transfer you to another facility unless the transfer is medically necessary and the receiving hospital has agreed to accept you.
Right to Informed Consent
Informed consent is another crucial right. Even in emergency situations, medical staff should explain procedures, treatments, and their potential risks. However, in life-threatening emergencies where you're unable to provide consent, doctors may proceed with necessary life-saving treatment.
Right to Privacy
Your privacy rights remain intact in the emergency room. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), your medical information should be kept confidential, though certain disclosures may be permitted for treatment purposes or to family members in some circumstances.
Right to Refuse Treatment
Your right to refuse treatment exists even in emergency settings, provided you're mentally capable of making such decisions. This means you can decline procedures or medications after being informed of the risks of refusal.
Common Emergency Room Errors That Lead to Harm
Emergency rooms in Kansas City and throughout the country are high-pressure environments where split-second decisions can mean the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, this high-pressure atmosphere also creates conditions where errors are more likely to occur. Examples of common emergency room errors include:
Diagnosis Errors
Misdiagnosis is perhaps the most common and dangerous error in emergency rooms. When doctors fail to correctly identify conditions like heart attacks, strokes, or infections, critical treatment is delayed. For example, heart attacks are sometimes misdiagnosed as indigestion, anxiety, or musculoskeletal pain, particularly in women and younger patients.
Medication Errors
Medication errors occur frequently in emergency settings. These include administering the wrong medication, incorrect dosing, or failing to check for allergies or drug interactions. The rushed nature of emergency care contributes to these mistakes, but they're still preventable with proper protocols.
Delayed Treatment
Delayed treatment represents another serious problem. When emergency rooms are understaffed or overcrowded, patients may wait hours for care, during which their condition might significantly worsen. A delay in treating a stroke, for instance, can lead to permanent brain damage that prompt intervention might have prevented.
Inadequate Monitoring
Inadequate monitoring after initial treatment can lead to preventable complications. Patients who receive medication or undergo procedures need consistent monitoring to catch adverse reactions or complications. When this monitoring is insufficient, dangerous symptoms may go unnoticed until serious harm occurs.
Communication Failures
Communication failures between shifts, departments, or health care providers can create dangerous gaps in care. When important information about your condition isn't properly communicated, subsequent providers may make decisions based on incomplete information, leading to inappropriate treatment.
Premature Discharge
Premature discharge happens when patients are sent home before their condition has been properly addressed or stabilized. This type of error occurs most often during busy periods when beds are needed for incoming patients. It can result in serious complications or even death when patients don't receive the care they need.
Identity Errors
Patient mixups occur when busy staff confuse one patient with another, potentially resulting in the wrong treatments, medications, or procedures being administered. These identity errors are entirely preventable with proper verification protocols but continue to happen in hectic emergency departments.
What to Do if You Experience an Emergency Room Error
If you believe you've experienced emergency room malpractice or negligence in a Kansas City emergency room, taking prompt action can protect your health and preserve your legal options. Following the steps below will help you address both your medical needs and build documentation for any potential medical malpractice claim, which will have to be filed within the Missouri statute of limitations.
Seek Immediate Medical Care
Prioritize your health first by seeking immediate medical attention for any complications resulting from the negligent care. This might mean asking to see a different doctor in the same facility, going to another emergency room, or contacting your primary care physician as soon as possible.
Thoroughly Document Your ER Visit
Document everything related to your emergency room visit. Keep detailed notes about your symptoms, the care you received, conversations with medical staff, and any changes in your condition. If possible, take photos of visible injuries, medication labels, or other relevant evidence.
Preserve Relevant Evidence
Preserve all evidence related to your care, including discharge instructions, prescription bottles, medical devices, and bills. These items can provide important information about your treatment and the standard of care you received during your emergency room visit.
Secure Copies of Your Medical Records
Request your medical records promptly. Under federal law, you have the right to access your medical records, which contain crucial information about your diagnosis, treatment, medications, and the medical professionals who treated you. These records form the foundation of any potential malpractice claim.
Follow the Hospital’s Complaint process
Report the incident to hospital administration through their formal complaint process. This creates an official record of your concerns and may prompt an internal investigation. Many hospitals have patient advocates who can guide you through this process and help address immediate concerns.
Consult a Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Contact an experienced Kansas City medical malpractice lawyer who specializes in emergency room errors, such as a member of the Fowler Pickert Eisenmenger Norfleet team. These specialized attorneys understand the complex medical and legal issues involved in emergency room negligence cases and can evaluate whether you have a viable claim.
It’s important to avoid discussing your potential claim on social media or with the hospital's administrators or insurance representatives before consulting with a Kansas City medical malpractice lawyer. Statements you make could potentially be used to undermine your case later, particularly if they could be interpreted as contradicting your claim.