Howard County Medical Malpractice: How Hospitals Factor
Howard County has several healthcare providers who perform surgery and other procedures and treatments at Howard County General Hospital and other clinics or surgical centers. Howard County is considered a conservative county. Even though the majority of medical malpractice verdicts favor the defendant, a verdict for the plaintiff is likely to be lower in a conservative county like Howard County as opposed to a more liberal county such as Prince George’s County or Baltimore City. Speak with a medical malpractice lawyer in Howard County to discuss other unique aspects of these claims in the area.
Hospitals in Howard County
The largest hospital in Howard County is Howard County General Hospital. Doctors and surgeons throughout the state of Maryland treat patients and perform a multitude of procedures there. The hospital serves several specialty areas such as neurology, orthopedics, pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics and geriatric care. Depending upon the agreement between the individual doctor and the hospital or clinic facility, the Hospital may be held liable for any acts of malpractice committed by the doctor while treating a patient at the hospital. This is not always the case, as some doctors work as independent contractors for the hospitals or clinics as opposed to being employed directly by the hospital or facility.
Teaching Hospitals
If you are alleging a claim of medical malpractice against a resident in a teaching hospital or a doctor who is running an experimental testing program or drug trial, the same rules apply as if the alleged malpractice occurred in a non-teaching hospital. You will still need to establish what the accepted standard of care is in that specific field of medicine. You will then need to prove through expert testimony that the defendant doctor or healthcare professional deviated from that standard of care in the treatment of the patient. In a teaching hospital you would bring a claim for medical malpractice against the resident doctor and the supervising or attendant doctors.
Importance of Hiring a Howard County Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Medical malpractice cases are some of the most complex and strongly contested cases in the civil arena. Doctors and other healthcare professionals fight very hard to protect their respective licenses from alleged acts of malpractice. It is rare for these cases to be decided by a jury because in Maryland the majority of cases that are decided by a jury rule in favor for the defendant doctors or healthcare professional. In order to prove a medical malpractice case you will need to establish the accepted standard of care in that particular medical field. Then you will need to prove that the defendant doctor in his/her actions departed from that standard of care. You will need to do this during deposition and at trial. Hiring an experienced Howard County medical malpractice attorney will greatly help your chances of success than if you attempt to win the case without hiring an attorney.
How an Attorney Can Help
An attorney will be able to screen and hire medical experts to review the medical records from the defendant doctor. He or she will establish the accepted standard of care that is owed to the patients in that specific field of medicine. The attorney can then work with that medical expert to build a compelling case that the defendant doctor breached that accepted standard of care. An experienced medical malpractice attorney will be able to thoroughly prepare for the deposition of the defendant doctor and his respective medical expert witnesses in order to elicit testimony that will help prove the Plaintiff’s theory of medical malpractice. An experienced Howard County medical malpractice lawyer can review all of the pertinent literature that is relevant to the alleged acts of malpractice so they can frame the proper questions to ask at a deposition or trial in support of their theory of the case.
