Violence In Hospitals Is A Source Of Hospital Negligence

Hospital negligence can take many forms. Many of these can be administrative in nature, such as poor hiring practices, unqualified personnel, staff shortages, inadequate training and lack of supervision. Others can relate to the physical facility itself, including dangerous or unsanitary conditions either in emergency rooms, operating rooms or patient rooms.

Physical Violence an Increasing Threat in Hospitals

Another area from which hospital negligence may lead to a legal cause of action is physical violence. Interestingly, however, most research on this topic has focused on patients as a threat to health care workers instead of the possibility of the patients themselves being the victims of violent behavior.

What most scholarly research does not address, however, is that violent behavior in hospitals is not necessarily confined to attacks on health care workers.

Last year, for example, an individual at a Connecticut hospital was arrested on multiple occasions for attacking other patients as well as hospital staff. In the same year, a hospital worker in Bridgeport was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting three patients.

When is Hospital Violence Grounds for Malpractice?

Any incident in which a hospital patient suffers physical harm at the hands of another individual, whether that other person is another patient or a hospital employee, can raise the question of whether such harm could have been reasonably foreseen and prevented by the hospital management.

If this should happen to you or a loved one, then having an attorney who was able to consider hospital violence in terms broader than a narrow focus on the welfare of hospital workers will be essential to help you formulate and pursue your legal claims.

At Lynch Traub Keefe & Errante, our attorneys and legal staff always place the concerns and interests of our clients foremost when dealing with harm they have suffered while under medical care. Whether your case concerns medical malpractice or hospital negligence, see our webpage to learn more about how we can assist you and how to contact us.