When people have a medical emergency they usually call 911 and are transported to an Orlando emergency department. As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers, we know that Orlando Regional Medical Center and Florida Hospital Orlando receive thousands of patients through their emergency departments each year. These Orlando hospitals have a responsibility to provide timely and appropriate medical care.
Hospital emergency departments must be adequately staffed and capable of handling all types of medical emergencies. Whether it is 1:00 in the afternoon or 1:00 in the morning if a hospital agrees or advertises to take emergencies such as heart attacks or stroke, it must be able to provide timely intervention and medical care. Otherwise, patients should be taken to other healthcare facilities.
Unfortunately, patients taken to local hospital emergency departments do not always receive timely intervention. This may occur because the doctors or hospital staff fail to properly take a medical history from the patient or the patient’s family. A medical history is the information surrounding the circumstances which caused the patient to go to the hospital. While this information is critical to a proper diagnosis, we have found that hospitals and doctors fail to take the time to obtain a complete and accurate medical history. Sadly, the failure to ask simply questions has led to unnecessary injury and death.