Fort Lauderdale Negligent Patient Supervision Lawyer Fighting for Your Rights

Problems That May Arise Due to Failure to Monitor Patients

Proper monitoring is a key component of health care. A patient’s health can fluctuate wildly, whether than patient was admitted to have surgery or due to a serious illness, injury or health emergency, like a heart attack or stroke.

After surgery or any time during which a patient is receiving care, a variety of things could go wrong. The patient’s blood pressure could spike. He or she could suffer internal bleeding or hemorrhaging. A severe fever could cause significant damage, or an illness could worsen.

If left unmonitored, the patient’s complications could worsen. Any condition that arises could lead to a coma, loss of capacity, losing a limb, a severe loss of blood or a number of other negative results.

When Failure to Monitor Patient Becomes Negligence

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals owe a high duty of care to their patients. They must meet the standards of their profession, and act accordingly as a reasonable and prudent doctor or nurse. The failure to do so, or breach of that duty, becomes the legal concept of “negligence” if the failure causes damages that the plaintiff, or person suing, suffers. When a person is negligent, he or she must compensate the damaged party for their loss.

Hospitals are responsible for their patients. They must maintain proper staffing levels, with sufficient nurses and doctors on duty at all times to monitor patients and handle any incidents that might arise. They are also responsible for many decisions of their staff through the doctrine of “respondeat superior.”

When an issue arises that may have been averted had a doctor or nurse spotted it earlier, it takes careful attention to determine whether the hospital’s patient supervision was negligent. An attorney will carefully look at both a hospital’s procedures and their records, to determine whether procedure was followed. A lawyer can also seek out expert witnesses to help determine the extent of a patient’s damages caused by the failure to properly supervise.