Legal Insights on Medical Malpractice and Patient Safety

Whether you have been admitted to a hospital in Seattle or are at a health care facility for outpatient care, you expect to be safe. You assume that your surroundings are clean and free from hazards that could cause you to suffer a serious fall.

Unfortunately, the truth is that patient falls in hospitals and other medical facilities are all too common and can lead to serious injuries. If you or a loved one has been injured in a fall accident in a Seattle medical facility, contact Menzer Law, right away. Our attorneys are here to help you hold a negligent medical provider responsible for your injuries.

Causes Of Patient Falls

Over the years, we have found that some of the most common causes of falls at hospitals and medical facilities include:

• Lack of supervision: You or a loved one may have fallen in a hospital when trying to do something on your own. Yet, in many cases, you should not have had to try and get up and walk alone. If you had been properly supervised by the nursing staff, someone would have been available to help you get out of bed, walk around or use the restroom.
• Poor communication between staff: It may be that a lack of communication or miscommunication between staff members meant no one checked in on you for an extended period of time. During this time, you or your relative may have suffered a preventable fall.
• Delayed response by nurse: It may be that you or your relative called for the nurse. However, no one arrived in a reasonable amount of time, and you needed to get up.
• Falls during patient transfers: You or a loved one may have fallen if the nursing staff failed to use best practices when transferring you from one bed to another or from a wheelchair to a bed or vice versa.
• Inaccurate fall risk assessment: You or your relative may not have been properly assessed as a fall risk when you were admitted to the hospital. If this assessment was done correctly, the application of full precautions would have prevented your fall.
• Inadequate sedation: When you receive medical attention at a hospital, there are times when you should be sedated for your own health and safety. Too much or too little sedation could result in an injury fall.
• Inadequate safety restraints: If you or a loved one were at risk of injuring yourself, the standard of care may have required that you or your relative be restrained when direct supervision was unavailable. Inadequate or defective restraints may have given you the freedom to move around when it was not safe for you to do so, resulting in a fall.
• Cords and tubes: When you are in the hospital, you may be hooked up to various IVs, catheters, heart monitors and other devices surrounding you with tubes and cords. These can get in your way as you try to get out of bed or move around, causing you to fall.
• No bed-exit alarm: Hospitals have bed alarms that notify staff members when a patient who is at risk for falling starts to get out of bed. If you or your loved one’s bed-exit alarm was not turned on or properly reset, then staff members were unaware of when you or your relative needed help.
• Slippery floors: Slip-and-falls in hospitals can occur because of recently mopped or waxed tile floors or because of substances or standing water on the tiles that are not cleaned up right away.

No matter what led to your accident, we can help you seek appropriate compensation.

Common Fall-Related Injuries

If you or a relative fell as a patient in a hospital or other medical facility in Seattle, the injuries may include:

• Broken bones
• Traumatic brain injury
• Lacerations
• Soft tissue injury
• Neck or back injury
• Spinal cord injury

You should talk with one of our attorneys about your right to hold the medical provider responsible for your fall-related injuries.

Compensation After A Hospital Fall

If you fell while you were a patient at a hospital or medical facility, you need to speak with an experienced attorney. A lawyer will investigate the circumstances and uncover the reason you fell and whether that reason was due to negligent patient care or property maintenance.

If the medical provider is responsible for your fall and injuries, then we at Menzer Law can represent you in seeking full and fair compensation, including:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Disfigurement
• Disability
• Reduced earning potential
• Lower quality of life

We will thoroughly calculate all costs and losses associated with your injuries and seek compensation accordingly.

Call Menzer Law For Help Today

To talk with a lawyer about your legal options after falling in a hospital or other health care facility in Seattle, contact us by filling out our online form or calling 206.903.1818.