Medical malpractice applies to all health care professionals, hospitals

By Greg Kohn
Partner

When New Jersey patients undergoing medical treatment are injured due to medical negligence, they may be able to file a medical malpractice lawsuit to recover damages. Many people think that medical malpractice lawsuits involve only doctors; in fact, medical malpractice can apply to all health care providers.

New Jersey medical malpractice claims apply to the negligent conduct of any medical personnel who provide health care, including doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, hospitals and other health care facilities and pharmaceutical companies.

Hospital liability

There are multiple forms of liability for medical negligence. Hospitals, for example, can be held directly liable for negligence under certain circumstances. Hospitals employ a large number of medical personnel responsible for providing quality medical care. If a hospital hires someone who does not have the requisite education, training and medical license to treat patients, the hospital may be liable if that employee’s negligent care causes an injury to a patient.

Injured parties can also hold hospitals directly liable for the following:

  •     Nursing shortages that lead to patient injuries
  •     Failure to prevent harm to patients
  •     Failure to properly perform medical tests
  •     Failure to keep patient information accurate and private
  •     Refusal to treat patients who are either seriously injured or in a protected class

Hospitals may also be vicariously liable for an employee’s acts when the employee’s negligence causes an injury to a patient. This is possible when the negligence causing injury to a patient occurs while the employee is acting within the parameters of the employee’s work duties.

An experienced attorney can help patients injured by medical malpractice recover damages from the appropriate negligent party. Contact our office today.

About the Author
Greg Kohn is a partner at Nagel Rice and specializes in complex civil litigation cases, including professional malpractice, personal injury, class actions, wrongful death, products liability, and commercial litigation.  He has extensive experience representing clients in both state and federal court. Greg has tried many jury trials to verdict and has recovered over $50 million in settlements and verdicts in all types of personal injury matters including automobile accidents, wrongful death cases, slip and falls, and other catastrophic injury cases. Greg also handles medical malpractice cases, involving misdiagnoses, wrongful birth, and delayed cancer diagnosis. If you have questions regarding this article, you can contact Greg here.