Medical Malpractice Attorney in San Francisco, California
How do you typically approach negotiations and settlements in emergency room malpractice cases?
How do you typically approach negotiations and settlements in emergency room malpractice cases?
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they’re not a lot different than other
malpractice cases but
you know your cases are interesting
because you know your doctors have a
very particular specific role in the
healthcare delivery system and they’re
essentially there to identify
the bad things that can kill you quickly
and then get you to the right people
to solve your medical problem and so
juries tend to have a lot of empathy for
ER doctors and Frontline nurses uh
particularly after covid we really
strive to with ER cases to really figure
out was the physician
um kind of using the right diagnostic
process to kind of come to the more
likely diagnoses and get the patient off
to the right consultants and there’s an
old adage in ER medicine it’s you know
worse first you want to identify the
worst possible conditions that may be
affecting that patient of the ER and
then work work down from there so when
we negotiate those cases you know we
always recognize that your doctors
aren’t going to always be perfect you
know they might get things wrong but if
they go down the right diagnostic
algorithm they’re going to be cut a lot
of slack by juries so we we recognize
that when we negotiate and settle those
cases
San Francisco, CA medical malpractice attorney Jeff Mitchell discusses his typical approach to negotiations and settlements in emergency room malpractice cases. In ER medical malpractice cases, there’s a unique aspect to consider. These cases involve healthcare providers, particularly ER doctors and frontline nurses, who play a crucial role in quickly identifying life-threatening conditions and facilitating appropriate medical care. Despite the challenging nature of their work, there is often a sense of empathy for these healthcare professionals, particularly in light of the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In these cases, the focus is on whether the physician followed the correct diagnostic process to arrive at the most likely diagnoses and promptly referred the patient to the right specialists. In emergency medicine, the guiding principle is “worse first,” prioritizing the identification of the most severe conditions.
When negotiating and settling ER medical malpractice cases, it’s essential to recognize that healthcare providers may not always be perfect in their decisions. However, if they followed the appropriate diagnostic protocol, juries tend to be more forgiving. Therefore, this understanding is taken into account during negotiations and settlements.
