Cleveland Malpractice Attorneys Hold Those Responsible for Urgent Care Negligence Accountable

Convenience and speedy service shouldn’t outweigh patient safety

People are increasingly relying on urgent care clinics for after-hours medical problems or in situations where they can’t get in to see their doctor quickly enough. Most patients turn to these clinics for illnesses and injuries that don’t rise to the level of an emergency. But for a layperson, it can be difficult to know when a particular medical problem is too serious to be handled by a “doc-in-the-box” urgent care facility. While a patient cannot be expected to recognize a medical emergency that is beyond the scope of urgent care, the doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants and other medical staff at these clinics definitely should. Sadly, this is not always the case, and the results can be devastating. The Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys at The Eisen Law Firm are committed to holding urgent care clinics accountable for negligent or inadequate care and sending a powerful message to this community by making them pay maximum monetary damages when their carelessness leads to permanent injury or death.

Urgent Care Negligence and Medical Malpractice Claims

The popularity of urgent care clinics is rising and so, too, are the medical malpractice claims against such facilities. In a  2011 Journal of the American Medical Association article, JAMA  found that outpatient care was responsible for 43 percent of paid medical malpractice claims in 2009, and the most prevalent underlying cause was diagnostic errors. Urgent care clinics are very different from hospital emergency rooms, both in terms of the qualifications of the personnel and in terms of the availability of tests and equipment. It is absolutely critical for the staff at these facilities to understand when they are in over their heads and to quickly transfer patients with emergency conditions to a nearby hospital. Several common themes run through malpractice claims against urgent care facilities:

• Failure to recognize emergencies
• Failure to timely transfer patients to a hospital
• Insufficient training of medical personnel
• Inadequate attention to patient safety
• Inadequate staffing
• Infrequent inspections by regulatory agencies
• Non-functioning or missing diagnostic equipment
• Lack of access to necessary medications
• Insufficient or non-existent physician oversight of physician’s assistants (PAs)

Unfortunately, oversight is pretty minimal with respect to urgent care facilities. Not only are such facilities typically unlicensed in Ohio, they also are usually not accredited by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), the entity that accredits hospitals and various ambulatory care facilities. Because there is so little oversight, it can be very difficult to determine whether any particular facility has a systemic problem with poor patient care.  That makes it virtually impossible for patients to identify and avoid “problem” facilities. The lack of oversight also contributes significantly to incidents of medical negligence, as these facilities are not accountable to any regulatory entity.

Types of Medical Negligence found in Urgent Care Clinics

Immediate care shouldn’t be provided at the expense of quality care, but in an effort to provide speedy service and quick turnover, many problems and important procedures are often overlooked.  The issues identified above contribute to a number of injuries and drastic problems in the urgent care clinic setting. Common examples include:

• Failure to diagnose / misdiagnosis
• Failure to timely transfer patients to a hospital
• Failure to treat life-threatening conditions
• Medication errors
• Lack of patient supervision
• Patient injuries due to inadequately trained staff
• Delay in treatment
• Lack of follow-up with patients
• Insufficient patient intake & evaluation

These weaknesses, errors and failures have dire consequences, including:

• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Pulmonary embolism
• Appendicitis
• Aneurysms
• Liver failure
• Kidney failure
• Death

When you have been a victim of urgent care negligence, you can seek monetary compensation for your injuries.

Leading Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys help urgent care negligence victims receive vital medical care and full and fair monetary compensation

If you suspect malpractice at a Cleveland urgent care clinic, contact The Eisen Law Firm online or call 216-687-0900 to discuss your case during a free initial consultation. Our expert team is highly qualified to evaluate your circumstances and determine whether you have a viable medical malpractice claim. From our offices in Cleveland, we help victims of medical malpractice throughout Ohio.