When a patient is placed in observation status, he or she should be continually monitored. Hospitals have specific protocols and procedures that their staff must follow to best ensure patient safety and comfort.  

A nurse, physician, or other hospital employee who fails to provide necessary oversight or monitoring can create a dangerous, even life-threatening situation. The experienced legal team at Crim Law, PLLC, would like to focus on how an observation status may trigger a medical malpractice claim. 

Medical errors due to hospital staff, including nurses, failing to monitor a patient, occur regularly. Watching a patient for worsening of their condition or for possible complications post-surgery are critical actions for nursing staff. When a nurse or other staff member fails to provide an appropriate level of patient care, a medical malpractice lawsuit may be appropriate. 

What Situations Most Often Lead to Negligent Hospital Care for a Patient in Observation Status?

Medical providers have a duty to provide a baseline level of care to patients. Millions of people seek emergency or hospital care each year. Hospitals have established protocols for every action taken by healthcare personnel. Even in emergency situations, guidance is provided for physicians, nurses, and other employees when caring for patients. 

While a patient is in observation status, hospital employees may tend to overlook that patient in favor of others whose conditions are more critical or dynamic at that moment. With that said, the key word in this healthcare term is: observation. As in, the hospital employee should be observing the patient at least to a reasonable extent based on accepted levels of care for that profession. 

While there is no shortage of conditions under which a patient may be placed in Observation Status, there are a handful of illnesses, circumstances, and situations where a failure to properly observe a patient may occur more often. 

Labor and Delivery Personnel Must Be Sure to Closely Monitor the Mother and Child

Depending on the circumstances of the mother and baby, labor may last many hours. A heart rate monitor allows nurses to closely monitor the child’s well-being. Vital signs and physical changes that occur during labor are also regularly checked by nurses.

Mothers-to-be are not able to do much in terms of looking after their own health while in labor. As such, when a nurse fails to take note of a change in the condition of a pregnant woman, it can lead to bad outcomes. Contact an experienced West Virginia nursing malpractice lawyer today if you have questions about your own failure to monitor case. 

Observing a Patient After Anesthesia is Administered

It is critical that a patient be closely monitored after anesthesia is administered. Physicians and nurses alike are trained to identify when vital signs deviate from normal ranges. When those vital signs are significantly removed from the “normal” range due to the failure to properly observe a patient, there may be a medical malpractice claim to consider pursuing. The impacts of negligence in observing a client after anesthesia is administered include serious injury or death. 

Surgery and the Failure to Properly Monitor a Patient

The vital signs of a patient during and after surgery must be closely monitored to ensure that blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate remain within certain ranges. The surgery itself places the body under significant stress. This is on top of anesthesia being administered, which compounds the stress levels for the body. 

Once surgery is complete, unless complications have arisen during the procedure, it is normal for the patient to be taken out of the operating room and placed into observation. Here, nurses monitor the patient for signs of distress as the body begins to “wake up” from anesthesia and from the stress of the surgery. Even though the surgery is over, there are still risks to the patient during this recovery phase. 

Hospital staff must be available and vigilant to watch for signs of internal bleeding, blood clots, or a sharp drop in oxygen levels. It is difficult to identify these issues from afar. The symptoms of any of these conditions may not be noticeable at first glance. When in observation status, hospitals and nursing staff must be aware of these potential risks and act accordingly to ensure patients do not suffer harm after surgery has concluded. 

Compensation for Injuries Related to the Failure to Monitor Properly

When harm results from a failure to monitor a patient, there may be compensation available to the injured patient. Past and future medical expenses are a form of economic damages that may be recovered. Injuries resulting from a failure to monitor a patient can lead to future medical treatment, as well as treatment already incurred due to the negligence of a nurse, doctor, or hospital. Any modifications necessary to the daily activities of an injured person should also be accounted for. 

More complex to specifically quantify, non-economic damages like emotional trauma, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship are also a component of observation status cases. Having an experienced West Virginia nursing malpractice lawyer help calculate, explain, and prove your damages provides you with an advantage in a competitive, complex medical malpractice case. 

Contact Crim Law, PLLC For a Free Consultation

When a nurse, physician, or other medical professional causes you to suffer an injury due to the failure to monitor while receiving hospital care, time is of the essence. You have a limited amount of time to investigate the situation and to file an insurance claim. Unnecessary delays at the outset of your case can cost you the ability to recover damages that you deserve. 

Contact Crim Law, PLLC today for a free consultation. Our team of legal professionals represents clients injured while in hospital observation status. We pride ourselves on fighting for clients’ rights inside and outside the courtroom.