When people go to a surgery center to have a procedure done, they expect the safety of a hospital. Unfortunately, they do not always get that. Surgery centers differ vastly when it comes to resources and oversight and this often impacts the level of care patients receive. If you have been injured or someone you know has died during or after a procedure at a surgery center, you need to reach out to a seasoned Baltimore surgery malpractice attorney as soon as possible. At Arfaa Law Group, we are dedicated to protecting the rights of Maryland medical malpractice victims.
A recent investigation conducted by the USA Today Network and Kaiser Health News found that 17 states have no mandate to report patient deaths after surgery center care. As such, no facility oversight authority has scrutinized whether the deaths were a statistical irregularity or cause for concern.
Essentially, the report discovered that surgery centers operate under such an inconsistent mix of rules and regulations across the United States that death or serious injuries can result in no warning being issued to government officials, much less to potential patients. The lack of oversight allows centers hit with tough federal sanctions to keep operating. In fact, no rule stops a surgeon fired from a hospital for any wrongdoing from opening his or her own surgery center nearby. This gap in oversight continues even as the nation’s 5,600 surgery centers have surpassed hospitals in number and taken on increasingly difficult surgeries.
Even high profile fatalities, such as the death of comedian Joan Rivers who died in 2014 after a routine surgery in a New York surgery center, did not show up in Medicare’s public record of patients rushed to the hospital.
Sadly, the lack of oversight is also a problem in Maryland and is often the reason patients suffer preventable harm, and sometimes even death. If you or someone close to you has been injured during or after a procedure at a surgery center, you may be entitled to recover compensation through a medical malpractice claim. Medical malpractice is any error, wrongdoing or misconduct by the medical professional that leads to patient harm or patient death. In order to win a medical malpractice case, the lawyer representing the injured patient must be able to establish that the surgeon violated the standard of care established for all surgeons in Maryland and that the violation of this standard was the direct and proximate of the patient’s injury or death. Medical malpractice cases are time-sensitive so injured patients must act quickly.
Unfortunately, surgery centers often put profits over patient safety. If you believe that you or a family member has suffered a serious injury due to medical malpractice at a surgery center, you need to reach out to a skilled Baltimore surgery malpractice attorney without delay. At Arfaa Law Group, we will examine the facts of your case to determine whether the surgeons and supporting medical staff violated any safety rules. For a free, no-obligation consultation, please call 410-889-1850 or contact us online.
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