Hospital Negligence
It’s reasonable to expect a high standard of care when you visit the hospital. On occasion, the care you get is below the accepted standard, and results in real harm. When this happens to you, a hospital negligence lawsuit may be your only option for getting the justice you deserve.
Like any legal action, hospital negligence claims can take a long time to work through the court system. While the wheels are turning, your medical bills and losses from being off work keep piling up. Fortunately, hospital negligence lawsuit settlement funding can tip the balance back in your favor and help you fight through to the end of your case.
Hospital Negligence Statistics
Per the Personal Injury Center[1], around 195,000 patients lose their lives from preventable mistakes each year, while errors in diagnosis result in up to 100,000 deaths per year. It’s no surprise that hospital negligence lawsuits are common. Even when the medical errors result from individual doctors making simple mistakes, such as prescribing the wrong treatment plan, a hospital may be liable for negligent care of a patient.
Types of Hospital Negligence
According to the ABPLA Board[2], medical negligence can occur in many different ways. It can be the result of a single doctor or nurse’s mistake, a bad policy in place at the hospital, or even factors partly out of the medical team’s control, such as environmental hazards left unchecked. Some examples of hospital negligence include:
- Misdiagnosis
- Medication errors
- Poor follow-up or aftercare
- Premature discharge
- Birth injuries
- Misinterpreting results
- Failure to order proper testing
- Failure to recognize symptoms
- Not taking appropriate patient history into consideration
- Surgical errors, including wrong site surgery and unnecessary operations
The Office of Disease and Health Promotion has also raised awareness[3] on another form of hospital negligence: hospital-acquired infections. The organization reports that about 1 in 25 inpatients have an infection related to the care they received at the hospital. Because hospitals treat large numbers of ill people, they must have protocols in place to keep these infections from spreading through their facility. In some cases, a hospital-acquired infection may not be due to the spread of a contagious illness, but rather from neglecting to follow important safety protocols that can put patients at risk for urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, and so on.
Prevention of Hospital Negligence
Hospitals are generally aware of the risks negligence poses, and they’re broadly responsible for preventing as much of it as they can. That’s why medical facilities put plans in place to promote patient safety, reduce the risk of infections and unnecessary complications, and prevent costly errors caused by poor conditions or care. Common safety measures hospitals take include:
- Training for all staff in safety protocols and infection control
- Vigorous quality assurance programs
- Doctor and nurse checklists to ensure thorough application of medical best practices
- Independent third-party inspections and care audits to ensure all departments meet high standards
Of course, one of the most important safety measures is to keep you well-informed about your care and to enlist you as an active decision maker in the process. Your care team has a duty to inform you about your options for every procedure you consent to have done and to take your wishes seriously during every treatment.
Legal Options for Victims of Hospital Negligence
A hospital negligence lawsuit is the legal tool the courts have for getting the truth out and delivering the compensation you’re entitled to. Damages may be actual, which is the money you’ve actually lost through direct expenses and lost income, and they may also be punitive. Punitive damages are a sum of money the hospital has to pay as punishment for their negligence. It is theoretically possible you could suffer very small actual damages but still receive a much larger sum in punitive damages.
Malpractice occurs when the normal safety procedures break down and patients get hurt. If it happens to you, the law considers that you deserve compensation to make you whole again. This might even be true if you recover on your own from the injury or illness you got from the hospital.
What is pre-settlement funding for a hospital negligence lawsuit?
All this legal wrangling takes time and you won’t get your hospital negligence settlements until completion of the lawsuit. That usually takes months, or even years, to work through, and you can run out of resources partway through and have to give up.
This is where pre-settlement funding for medical malpractice comes in. Funding comes as a cash payment you get in anticipation of getting your settlement. This is not a loan, since you don’t have to pay it back. Rather, you’re selling a part of your eventual settlement to the funding company right now, which they get back when the hospital pays what it owes.
Unlike a loan, if you don’t win your case you owe us nothing, since what you sold was essentially a share in your suit. We also have some of the lowest interest rates in the industry at 36% per year, which typically takes two years to increase.
How long does it take for you to get approved for pre-settlement funding for your hospital negligence lawsuit?
Pre-settlement funding can get through the red tape pretty fast. In some cases, you get the funding you need within 24 hours after we approve your request. Depending on how you have things set up, the funds might automatically deposit right into your bank account.
What are the requirements for pre-settlement funding for your hospital negligence lawsuit?
To be eligible, your case has to meet certain guidelines. While terms vary a bit between cases, in general your lawsuit needs to be:
- In the hands of an attorney who’s working on contingency
- Dismissal of the case is unlikely
- Representing actual injuries or compensable damages (such as punitive damages)
- Credible and likely to prevail
How Much Money Can You Get Through Pre-Settlement Funding For Your Hospital Negligence Lawsuit?
There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how much money you can get as a pre-settlement lump sum. Generally, people involved in hospital negligence lawsuits can ask for up to 10% of their claim amount. We generally work with your attorney to figure out how to get you what you need.
If you were the victim of hospital negligence and are waiting to receive a settlement from a medical malpractice lawsuit, fill out our contact form or call us today at (877) USCLAIMS to explore your options.
FAQs
How much pre-settlement funding can you receive for your hospital negligence lawsuit?
The amount you receive for your pre-settlement funding depends on several factors, including the final amount of the settlement you’re fighting for. While the amount varies on a case-by-case basis, we’ll work with your attorney and you to determine the amount you’ll receive.
Can you use pre-settlement funding for things other than medical bills or living expenses while you recover from the hospital negligence injuries?
Absolutely. We purchase a portion of your lawsuit, but we won’t tell you how to spend your funds. You also won’t need to provide any documentation to show us how you used your funds. They are entirely yours to use as you see fit.
Sources
- 25 Facts about Medical Malpractice – Medical Malpractice Center. 2019, malpracticecenter.com/medical-malpractice-facts/.
- ABPLA. “What Is Malpractice?” Abpla.org, 2017, www.abpla.org/what-is-malpractice.
- “Overview – Health Care-Associated Infections – Health.gov.” Health.gov, 2019, health.gov/hcq/prevent-hai.asp.
