A Fall In the Hospital— A Common (and Preventable) Cause of Injury
A fall should never occur in a hospital, but sometimes, they can due to poor medical care.
Per the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, anywhere from 700,000 to 1,000,000 patients are injured every year due to a fall in a hospital setting. Although a fall may not seem like a big deal, it is never an insignificant event. A fall, especially one involving an injured or elderly patient, can lead to serious injuries such as internal bleeding, broken bones or fractures, head injuries, and death. If you feel that you or a loved one suffered a preventable fall in a hospital setting that ultimately led to severe injury, contact the law offices of Cardaro & Peek. We are here to help discover exactly what happened and bring you or your loved one justice. If the fall and injuries were a result of medical malpractice, you might have a claim against the healthcare providers who negligently failed to care for you or your loved one.
Falls Should NEVER happen
Unfortunately, many of the falls that occur in hospital settings could have been prevented. In fact, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services classifies falls as “never events,” i.e., they should never happen in the field of medical treatment.
This classification makes sense. Hospitals, and the medical professionals that work there, have a duty to uphold the standard of care in all that they do. There are thousands of publications on hospital safety, and every hospital has their own safety protocols. Every one of those publications and protocols requires that hospitals/medical professionals assess patients and accurately determine their fall risk. As explained below, falls often happen because of a failure of a hospital and its employees to adhere to its own protocols.
How preventable falls occur
There are a multitude of factors that can lead to a preventable fall, but as noted above, the overarching reason is a breach in the standard of care. The Joint Commission (the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care) found that the following are the main causes of falls:
- Inadequate assessment of fall risk
- Communication failures
- Lack of adherence to protocols and safety practices
- Inadequate staff orientation, supervision, staffing levels or skill mix
- Deficiencies in the physical environment
- Lack of leadership
All of these things are easily preventable. If you believe that any of these causes, or any other preventable cause, resulted in you or your loved one suffering a preventable fall in the hospital or medical setting, you deserve to be compensated for your damages.
Contact The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek, LLC Today
Do you believe that you or your loved one has suffered as a result of medical malpractice or medical neglect? If so, you may be entitled to compensation. Call Cardaro & Peek, LLC today.
The lawyers at Cardaro & Peek, LLC have the experience and resources necessary to investigate and litigate all types of medical claims throughout Maryland and Washington D.C. Cardaro & Peek, LLC has medical personnel on staff and has access to nationally recognized, board-certified physicians and other experts, to assist in the investigation, analysis, and prosecution of all types of medical malpractice claims. If you or a loved one have experienced malpractice, give us a call at 410-752-6166. Please visit our website www.cardarolaw.com and follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn for more information.
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