When you seek medical care at a hospital, you trust that the facility will provide competent diagnosis and treatment. However, hospitals and their medical staff sometimes fail to properly identify serious conditions, leading to delayed treatment, worsened injuries, or even death.
In Missouri, patients who suffer harm due to hospital misdiagnosis may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. The legal framework surrounding hospital liability involves multiple factors, including the relationship between the hospital and its physicians, the specific circumstances of the misdiagnosis, and whether the facility met the required standard of care.
Understanding your rights and the legal requirements for pursuing a Missouri hospital misdiagnosis claim can help you determine if you have a viable claim and how to proceed. Below, the experienced Kansas City medical negligence attorneys at Fowler Pickert Eisenmenger Norfleet explain what you need to know.
Hospital Liability for Misdiagnosis in Missouri
Hospitals can be held responsible for misdiagnosis through two main legal theories: direct liability and vicarious liability. Each approach requires different elements of proof and applies to different situations within the hospital setting.
Direct Hospital Liability
Direct hospital liability occurs when the institution itself fails to meet the standard of care expected of health care facilities. Examples include inadequate policies for diagnostic procedures, failure to properly credential medical staff, or insufficient oversight of patient care. For example, if a hospital lacks proper protocols for reading radiology images or fails to ensure that critical test results reach the treating physician, the facility may bear direct responsibility for resulting harm.
Hospitals have independent duties to their patients beyond simply providing a location for physicians to practice. These duties include maintaining proper equipment, establishing appropriate policies and procedures, and ensuring adequate staffing levels. When hospitals breach these duties and patients suffer harm as a result, the facility can be held directly liable.
Vicarious Liability
Vicarious liability, also known as respondeat superior, holds hospitals responsible for the negligent actions of their employees when acting within the scope of their employment. This doctrine recognizes that hospitals should be accountable for the care provided by staff members they hire, train, and supervise.
The key distinction in vicarious liability cases is whether the physician who made the misdiagnosis was a hospital employee or an independent contractor.
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Hospital-employed physicians, including many emergency room doctors, residents, and hospitalists, typically create vicarious liability for their employers when they commit malpractice.
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Independent contractor physicians, such as specialists with admitting privileges who maintain separate practices, generally do not create vicarious liability for the hospital.
Missouri's Legal Requirements for Hospital Misdiagnosis Claims
Missouri law imposes specific procedural and substantive requirements for medical malpractice claims against hospitals. Understanding these requirements is essential for building a successful case and avoiding procedural pitfalls that could derail your claim.
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The statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims in Missouri is generally two years from the date the patient discovers or should have discovered the injury. However, the law also includes an absolute limit of 10 years from the date of the alleged malpractice, regardless of when the injury was discovered.
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Missouri requires plaintiffs to file an affidavit of merit along with their medical malpractice lawsuit. It must be signed by a qualified health care professional who has reviewed the case and believes that the defendant's actions fell below the accepted standard of care.
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Proving a misdiagnosis claim requires establishing four key elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. The hospital or its employees must have owed a duty of care to the patient, breached that duty by failing to meet the appropriate standard of care, and this breach must have caused actual harm to the patient.
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Simply proving that a misdiagnosis occurred is not sufficient; you must also demonstrate that the misdiagnosis resulted in injury that would not have occurred with a proper diagnosis.
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Expert testimony is typically required to establish the standard of care and prove that the hospital or its employees fell below that standard. These experts must be qualified to testify about the specific medical issues involved in your case and the appropriate practices for diagnosis and treatment in hospital settings.
Emergency Room Misdiagnosis and Hospital Liability
Emergency rooms present unique challenges for both patients and hospitals, creating specific legal considerations for misdiagnosis claims. The fast-paced, high-pressure environment of emergency medicine can contribute to diagnostic errors, but it does not excuse hospitals from maintaining appropriate standards of care.
EMTALA Claims
Hospitals have particular responsibilities in emergency room settings under both state law and federal regulations. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals that accept Medicare payments to provide medical screening examinations to all patients who seek emergency care. This screening must be performed by qualified medical personnel using the hospital's standard procedures.
EMTALA violations can provide an additional basis for legal claims beyond traditional medical malpractice. If a hospital fails to provide an appropriate medical screening or stabilizes a patient before transfer to another facility, patients may have grounds for both federal EMTALA claims and state malpractice claims.
ER Physician Status
Emergency room physicians are often employed directly by hospitals or by staffing companies that contract with hospitals. This employment relationship can create vicarious liability for hospitals when emergency room doctors commit malpractice. However, some emergency physicians work as independent contractors, which can affect the hospital's liability exposure.
ER Standard of Care
The standard of care in emergency medicine accounts for the time pressures and resource limitations that emergency physicians face. However, this does not mean that hospitals and emergency physicians can avoid liability for preventable diagnostic errors. Courts evaluate emergency room care based on what a reasonable emergency physician would do under similar circumstances.
Triage protocols and nursing assessments play important roles in emergency room diagnosis. Hospitals must ensure that their triage systems properly identify patients who need immediate attention and that nursing staff are adequately trained to recognize signs of serious conditions. Failures in these systems can contribute to misdiagnosis and create hospital liability.
Building a Misdiagnosis Case Against a Missouri Hospital
The medical malpractice process is complex. Successful hospital misdiagnosis cases require careful preparation and thorough investigation of all potential sources of liability. In order to build an effective misdiagnosis claim, your Missouri hospital lawsuit lawyer will need to carefully examine multiple aspects of your care to identify where the hospital or its employees failed to meet appropriate standards.