Hospital Acquired Infections

Hospital Malpractice

An infection that develops in the hospital is an increasingly common occurrence. Go to the hospital for a serious, yet routine surgery, and end up as another statistic for a hospital caused infection, also known as a hospital-acquired infection (HAI) or nosocomial infection.

An HAI or nosocomial infection is a disease which is passed around medical treatment facilities from patient to patient. Typically, outbreaks of these illnesses arise, HAIs can be quite dangerous for patients because they have already-weakened immune systems and therefore may encounter significant difficulty when trying to recover from their original ailments as well as these new infections.

Causes of Hospital Infections

There are a number of ways that hospital infections may be passed around the patients of a medical facility, and all are related to a lack of enforced sterilization practices. When doctors and hospital workers are negligent in how they handle patients, they may facilitate the transfer of HAIs from person to person. When hospital management does not have established sanitation protocol, patients may also be put at risk of developing dangerous nosocomial infections.

Some of the more common causes of HAIs include the following:

• Doctors' ties
  
  
• Doctors' lab coats
  
  
• Nurse clothing or scrubs
  
  
• Failure to sterilize equipment
  
  
• Failure to wear non-sterile gloves
  
  
• Failure to wash hands and arms when moving from patient to patient, or before entering an operation room
  
  
• Lack of sanitary protocol
  
  
• Failure to clean an operating room before another patient is admitted into it
  
  
• Failure to adequately isolate patients from one another
  
  
• Failure to wear a sterile mask when necessary

A hospital acquired infection caused by negligence can be tragic, and certainly raises everyone's health care costs. If you have suffered a nosocomial infection at a hospital, then you may have the right to take legal action against the hospital at fault.

Common Hospital Infections

Some hospital acquired infections tend to arise more often than others. These include the following illnesses:

Keep in mind, that proving how and when you contracted a hospital infection can be difficult.  The time relationship between the onset of the infection and its duration, coinciding with your hospitalization, is often critical. Notes in your chart by nurses, treating physicians, as well as your inpatient lab work, can also be critical to establishing the hospital's liability for your serious infection.

If you or a family member has been seriously injured or died as a result of hospital negligence which led to a hospital infection, then please contact us today. An experienced personal injury lawyer is here at our law firm to help.