How Do I Hold Medical Professionals Accountable for Improper Treatment?

Scartelli Olszewski P.C.

Nearly 600,000 healthcare workers are employed throughout Pennsylvania. This includes doctors, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and more.

The vast majority of healthcare workers try their hardest to provide excellent medical care to patients. However, improper patient treatment has unfortunately become far too common for some medical professionals leading to personal injuries.

Do you believe a medical professional may have treated you improperly and even committed medical malpractice? Find out how to hold this healthcare provider accountable for their actions below.

Document Improper Treatment

If you suspect you aren’t receiving adequate care from medical professionals, improper treatment should be documented. Keep track of how you’re treated by healthcare workers, especially if you express concerns and they don’t seem to take them seriously.

Write down any ailments you develop following this improper treatment, too, and hang on to any medical bills you receive after seeking additional treatment to correct errors medical professionals may have made. The more documentation you can bring to the table, the better off you’ll be if you decide to take legal action through a medical malpractice attorney.

Contact a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

To truly hold a medical professional accountable for the subpar care they provided, look into your potential legal options. You maintain the right to file a malpractice lawsuit against medical professionals for improper treatment.

Filing a case against a healthcare worker requires hiring a medical malpractice lawyer. They can analyze the specifics of your case and see whether it meets the criteria for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against a medical professional.

An experienced medical malpractice attorney can put you in a position to collect compensation in the aftermath of:

Anesthesia errors
Misdiagnoses
Emergency room negligence
Medication mistakes
Wrong site surgeries
Informed consent issues (failure to report risks of surgery/not consenting to surgery)

Studies have shown medical errors affect about 400,000 hospitalized Americans each year. Don’t be afraid to explore your legal options if you feel victimized by medical professionals’ improper treatment.

Seek Compensatory Damages

An effective way to hold the medical community accountable for medical errors and other forms of improper treatment is to seek compensation through the proper legal channels. Seeking compensatory damages from healthcare workers and the medical facilities that employ them can emphasize the importance of being more careful when treating patients.

There are two main types of damages you can seek to recover by filing a medical malpractice case:

Economic damages: These are damages a medical malpractice lawyer can easily calculate, such as medical expenses, property damage bills, lost wages, etc., and often have receipts attached.
Non-economic damages: These are damages a medical malpractice lawyer can’t always calculate quickly, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, etc., requiring more nuance to assign a monetary value.

Additionally, Pennsylvania allows people to seek punitive damages in rare cases. These damages are above and beyond those designed to compensate for items such as medical costs and lost wages. Punitive damages are designed to punish and deter medical professionals who demonstrate reckless conduct.

Just keep in mind that the Keystone State has imposed some restrictions on punitive damages. For example, they cannot exceed 200% of the compensatory damages awarded in a medical malpractice case.

Has a Medical Professional’s Improper Treatment Impacted You? Give Our Law Firm a Call Now

If medical professionals don’t treat you adequately, improper treatment shouldn’t go unnoticed. Instead, you should set out to hold medical professionals accountable for this substandard treatment by filing a medical malpractice claim.

Call us today at (570) 346-2600 or contact us online to begin working with a medical malpractice attorney from Scartelli Olszewski, P.C. on your case.