Now more than ever, hospitals suffer from overcrowding and understaffing. This combined issue makes it difficult for both staff and patients alike.
Unfortunately, understaffing is a known cause of negligence. In some cases, this negligence can lead to malpractice.
Negligence and understaffing
Beckers Hospital Review discusses how understaffing in hospitals can lead to negligence. Essentially, a vicious cycle currently exists in which the members of staff who stay have to take on the burden of multiple people’s worth of work. This leads to burnout and causes more staff to quit, leading to the remainder having to work even harder.
Due to this understaffing issue, negligence is often rampant in more crowded hospitals. Staff simply do not have the resources to care for every patient at the proper level of quality expected. Sadly this can mean some patients end up overlooked.
Malpractice due to negligence
In some cases, negligence can lead to malpractice. For example, nursing staff may write a patient’s information down incorrectly, leading to them being treated with a medication to which they have a severe allergy.
In other cases, a surgeon may perform the wrong operation on a patient or perform the correct operation on the wrong patient, all because of information mix-ups due to negligence.
The damages from negligent care can range from mild nuisances to potentially deadly mistakes. Many patients who suffer from negligence in their care have legal standing to take action if they face negative consequences for said negligence or any malpractice that may have resulted therein.