When you need hospital care, you expect answers, treatment, and professional support that helps support your recovery. Yet, across Michigan, patients continue to experience medical complications and injuries caused by the hospital’s failures. Learning about Michigan hospital safety grades & negligence claims can help you understand how legal action is taken after the hospital system lets you down.
Hospital malpractice laws can leave you questioning your options and overwhelmed by complex evidence. If you hire a hospital malpractice attorney, they can help you analyze questions about your hospital’s safety standards, whether your injury is an example of medical negligence, and what to do next.
What to Know About Hospital Safety Grades
Hospital safety grades are ratings focused on hospitals’ adherence to safety protocols, rates of preventable injuries and infections, and other safety-focused data. These safety grades are often updated biannually, reflecting overall safety trends rather than the experience of a single patient or specific safety violations.
Low hospital safety grades can overlap with a higher risk of medical errors, such as delayed or misdiagnosed diagnoses, improper medical treatment, surgical errors, or hospital-acquired infections.
Why Safety Trends Matter in Hospital Care
Safety trends highlight weak areas in a hospital system’s safety, allowing them to target specific areas for improvement. It is estimated that over 50,000 lives could be saved if hospitals with grades B-F performed at the level of hospitals with A safety grades.
When hospital boards, patients, and hospital malpractice victims hold hospitals to a high standard, they may be more likely to address issues that lead to a low score, such as:
- Communication errors and record-keeping issues between hospital staff
- A lack of communication between patients and hospital staff
- Negligence toward sanitation and hygiene practices
- Errors in medication administration
- Recurring surgical errors
- Inadequate staffing
Safety trends can also allow patients to plan to receive medical care at a hospital with lower rates of preventable issues. However, for victims of hospital negligence, a safety rating can’t change the facts of their medical error.
There are also weaknesses in grading hospitals in this way. Some faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School point out that the grades over-emphasize what policies a hospital has adopted rather than how well they are followed. Additionally, it is important to recognize that a hospital malpractice case can occur no matter what a hospital’s safety rating is.
Understanding Medical Negligence Claims in Michigan
Hospital malpractice laws allow patients to file claims against a hospital when the care they received didn’t meet accepted standards, leaving them with injuries or worsened medical conditions. Common types of hospital malpractice involved in these claims include:
- Diagnosis errors. Diagnostic errors include diagnosing a patient with the wrong disease or failing to notice that anything is wrong. These make up 17% of preventable errors for hospitalized patients.
- Medication errors. Adverse events that could have been prevented lead to between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital deaths each year in the United States. Many of these are due to dispensing medications incorrectly.
- Surgical errors. Preventable surgery errors include wrong-site and wrong-patient surgeries, leaving foreign objects like medical supplies in the wound, or inadvertently causing damage to other organs.
- Hospital-acquired infections. While there’s always a risk of infection, hospitals can be held liable when it is caused by issues like improper hygiene, unsterile equipment, or failure to use personal protective equipment.
Why You Should Hire a Hospital Malpractice Attorney
An attorney can help you understand how safety grades impact your claim. In general, these grades and other forms of safety reporting are not strong evidence when it comes to proving a hospital’s negligence, as they don’t provide evidence specific to your case.
However, by incorporating safety grades alongside other types of evidence, low safety grades can increase the credibility of your argument by showing a history of substandard care. An attorney can gather evidence and speak with medical professionals to build a strong case for hospital negligence.
Beyond safety grades, an attorney can search for evidence such as:
- Witness testimonies from medical professionals
- Medical test results
- Medical records
- Notes and records from your physician
- Hospital staffing records
FAQs About Michigan Hospital Safety Grades & Negligence Claims
What Are the Four Requirements of a Hospital Malpractice Case?
The four requirements of a hospital malpractice claim include duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Duty of care involves establishing that you were a patient and were owed the accepted standard of care. Then, you must prove breach of duty by showing that the provider failed to meet this standard. Causation means providing evidence that the medical error directly caused your injury. Damages are the injuries and other losses you suffered.
What Is the Safety Grade of a Hospital in Michigan?
The safety grades of hospitals in Michigan, as reported by the Leapfrog Group, range from A to F. Many hospitals received A grades; however, other hospitals received low grades of D or F. To learn more about the specific safety scores for the hospital you received care from, you should speak with a Michigan hospital malpractice attorney.
Are Safety Grades the Same as Hospital Rankings?
No, safety grades are not the same as hospital rankings. While safety grades can be used to rank hospitals according to certain safety-focused data points, this is not the standard on which most hospitals are ranked.
Safety grades look at issues like rates of preventable errors and whether a hospital adopted certain safety practices. Most rankings include safety elements, but also incorporate other factors such as mortality rates or the patient experience.
What Are the Signs of Medical Malpractice?
Signs of medical malpractice usually appear after discharge from the hospital. While you are typically on the mend after a visit, you may actually feel worse after being a victim of hospital malpractice. If your symptoms are not improving or are getting worse, you may have received the wrong diagnosis or treatment. You may have also experienced malpractice if you weren’t able to receive a diagnosis or treatment in a reasonable amount of time.
Speak With a Skilled Michigan Hospital Malpractice Attorney
Michigan and federal hospital malpractice laws, as well as regulations and practices set by organizations like the Michigan Board of Medicine, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, all seek to minimize malpractice. Despite this, errors occur. Contact Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC, to learn how a team with over 40+ years of legal experience can help you recover after hospital malpractice.
