Med Mal Emergency Room Mistakes: Being Short-Staffed on Weekends When Errors Can Occur

A medical crisis can happen at any time. But what happens if you walk into an emergency room late on a Saturday night to find that the doctors and nurses are too busy to properly address your needs?

Hospitals are often short-staffed on weekends, and while understaffing isn’t pleasant in any industry, it can be deadly in a healthcare environment. If you believe you have been harmed due to a hospital’s negligence, it’s important to know when staffing issues contributed to the problem so you can hold the right party responsible.

Why Are Hospitals Short-Staffed?

Understaffing is a rampant problem in many healthcare settings — an issue that worsens when patient numbers rise significantly during times of high illness transmission. While each situation is unique, a few common factors can contribute to staffing difficulties.

Some hospitals have difficulty finding and retaining qualified providers, especially if understaffing is already an issue and existing professionals are being overworked to compensate. Many medical providers switch jobs frequently to seek better hours or higher wages, which can also lead to incomplete or inadequate training.

While staffing is difficult enough even during regular business hours, it’s an even bigger issue on holidays, weekends, or overnights. These shifts are less desirable to many people and may not attract many highly qualified and adequately trained medical experts.

How Understaffing Can Lead to Medical Malpractice

If a hospital doesn’t have enough workers, medical providers may oversee more patients than they can safely manage. They may even work extended shifts that can go 12 hours or longer, leading to fatigue that could interfere with their ability to provide proper care.

The combination of exhaustion and an extremely fast-paced environment where their attention is split between too many patients can lead to healthcare providers making all sorts of mistakes, including:

• Delayed or incorrect diagnoses
• Prescription errors, especially in dosage
• Surgical and anesthetic errors
• Premature patient discharge
• Failure to follow up with patients
• Inadequate patient monitoring

Particularly in an emergency room, all of these errors can cause devastating effects for people seeking medical care. A lack of proper treatment or application of a harmful treatment may lead to long-term consequences. In the worst scenarios, they may lead to wrongful death.

Who Is Responsible for Medical Malpractice Caused by Understaffing?

If you have been harmed in a medical environment as a result of someone else’s negligence, then you may be entitled to compensation. However, determining who is responsible for the losses you suffered is rarely an easy task, especially if understaffing could have contributed to the problem.

Hospitals have a duty to hire qualified staff, manage the population of their emergency rooms, and ensure there are enough medical providers to care for each patient. If a hospital breaches any of these duties, the facility may be partially liable for any injuries that occur.

Proving Medical Malpractice as a Result of Understaffing

Medical malpractice cases are complicated, even if only one provider is involved. It’s even less straightforward when you believe a hospital’s failure to adequately staff their emergency room led to your damages. If you believe you have been harmed by a healthcare facility’s negligence, it’s best to contact a medical malpractice attorney. They can examine your unique situation and provide guidance on which steps you should take to seek justice.