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VA Hospital Negligence Can Be Hard to Spot

When a loved one is dying, you want him to have the best care available. You brace yourself for the inevitable, knowing that each time you visit their hospital room might be your last.

But when the day comes, how will you be able to tell whether the death was natural or a result of the hospital that was supposed to be providing care?

Learn more about hospital negligence in our FREE book: Do I Have A Case? A Patient's Guide to Virginia Medical Negligence Law.

All too often, cases of hospital negligence in Virginia go unreported. Sometimes the error is never identified because the victim was in critical condition to begin with, such as elderly patients or those who had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Sometimes the hospital administration is aware of the mistake, but wants to avoid the bad press-and therefore, the responsibility-by refusing to acknowledge it.

Here are just a few types of hospital negligence in DC that can lead to serious injury:

• Failure to deliver appropriate treatment. This can be anything from a medical misdiagnosis to prescribing the wrong kind of medication for your condition.
  
• Failure to perform treatment in a timely manner. Understaffed hospitals often have skeleton shifts at night, leading to slower responses to emergency codes or nurse calls.
• Failure to train or hire competent staff. Untrained or incompetent employees may deliver an improper dosage of medication, ignore call lights or not even know how to perform CPR.
• Failure to keep clean and sterile conditions. This will often result in hospital-acquired infections, which your relative may not have the immune system strength to fight off.

As trusted Fairfax medical malpractice attorneys, we know that many hospitals have mandatory safety practices to protect patients from harm. However, we also know that even the top-rated hospitals can make mistakes-and when they do, they should compensate the victims and take steps to ensure that it never happens again.

If someone you love suffered because of a physician's negligence, we can get justice from those responsible. Call Shevlin Smith today at (703) 591-0067 to start your free consultation.

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