How to Avoid Medical Accidents

Medical Malpractice: Avoidable Tragedies

At Branch Law Firm® in Albuquerque, New Mexico, our medical malpractice attorneys hear stories every day of serious injury or death caused by the failure of medical professionals to provide the accepted standard of care. Hospital records that are incomplete or lost, a doctor's failure to perform a thorough examination and resulting misdiagnosis, negligence of a obstetrician in failing to perform a c-section, or an anesthesiologist leaving the operating room during surgery – medical malpractice injures or kills thousands of people every year.

If you would like to discuss a case of medical malpractice with a lawyer please contact our Albuquerque, New Mexico, office for a free consultation.

How to Avoid Medical Malpractice

There are some measures patients can take to avoid becoming a victim of medical malpractice. As a result of their experience our lawyers have assembled some suggestions for patients and their families:

• Get a second (or third) opinion before having surgery, beginning treatment, or accepting a diagnosis that seems overly reassuring.
• If you are entering the hospital enlist a friend, relative, or private duty nurse to serve as your patient advocate. This person can monitor your care during critical periods when you are not able to do so, seeing that you receive medications as prescribed, records are kept properly, and you are being given proper nursing care.
• Give your patient care advocate power of attorney in fact – specific permission to review your medical records.
• Check on the surgeon's credentials before a procedure. Ask your doctor how many times he or she took the board before becoming certified. (Two or three isn't bad, five or six suggests a problem) Ask how many times the doctor has performed the procedure and what the success rate was.
• Check out the hospital. The governing body for hospitals will have a record of deficiencies an discrepancies during inspections and a record of hospital malpractice complaints and lawsuits. (These now have to be reported to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda.

By taking an active role in your health care you can help prevent medical malpractice. If you or someone you care about has suffered because of the negligence of a doctor, chiropractor, hospital, or other medical professional and you would like to speak with one of our lawyers please contact our Albuquerque office and arrange for a free consultation.