Firm Background

As a patient in a hospital you have a Right to insist that the hospital staff and your doctors provide you and your loved ones Comfort, Dignity, and Safety. The lawyers at Watson Graffeo, P.C. can help victims of neglect and abuse at nursing homes and hospitals. We hope the following information is useful.

It is estimated that nearly 100,000 Americans die each year in hospitals due to preventable medical errors. One million more are injured by medical malpractice such as drug-dosing errors, falls, infections, bed sores, and failure to diagnose cancers, and other preventable injuries. Statistics show that medical errors probably kill as many people each year as breast cancer, AIDS and car accidents combined. One out of every twenty hospital patients in the United States gets an infection, totaling two million Americans per year. While some of these infections may be unavoidable, as many as three quarters of these cases are preventable, according to varying estimates. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the best way to reduce infections is for doctors and hospital staff to simply wash their hands between treating patients.

Ask questions and get answers. It is easy to be intimidated by doctors and hospital staff, but as the patient you have a right to receive information about your treatment.

Insist that the nursing staff keep your doctor informed about your condition, especially changes in your condition such as fever, blisters or puss on your body, vomiting, and confusion, as these can be signs of both an infection and a bad reaction to or over-dosage of medications.

Insist on hand washing by anyone who touches you in the hospital. Keep a bottle of alcohol based hand sanitizer just outside the room door and beside the hospital bed, and make sure people use it.

Insist on being told the infection rate for your surgeon and the hospital before undergoing a procedure.

I.V. and catheters spread infection and disease – insist your caregivers insert these devices into your body under sterile conditions and regularly check and change them for cleanliness.