Alice Hyde Medical Center

Located in Malone, Alice Hyde Medical Center provides health care for over 55,000 residents of North County, New York. It has multiple facilities, including a skilled nursing facility, an assisted living facility, a cancer treatment facility, a cardiac rehabilitation unit, a dental care center, and an orthopedic and rehabilitation center. It also has four family health centers. If you believe you were harmed by professional negligence at Alice Hyde Medical Center, a dedicated Malone medical malpractice attorney can help you determine your legal rights and options.

Medical staff and doctors are entrusted with human lives and often, they go through substantial training to earn that trust. However, health care providers sometimes make mistakes, and those mistakes can result in disability or death. If you suffered injury at the hands of a doctor, nurse or medical staff member, you’ll need to show it’s more likely than not: (1) the health care provider owed you a professional duty of care, (2) the health care provider breached the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. Different circumstances call for health care providers to act differently. For example, the actions a health care provider should take in connection with a teenager who comes in with chest pain may be different that those that should be taken where an elderly man who has had a coronary bypass comes in with chest pain.

A medical center can be held vicariously liable when an employee’s negligence injures a patient. Vicarious liability is a form of indirect liability that is contingent on proving the negligence of an employer’s employee. Hospitals or medical centers can be held liable for an employee’s negligence in the course and scope of employment that results in harm to a patient. Often, nurses, medical technicians, and hospital support staff are employees of a hospital. If they are negligent in the course and scope of employment, it may be possible to hold the hospital vicariously liable for their professional negligence, and a medical malpractice attorney serving Malone can assist you with this kind of claim.

When a doctor is an employee of a medical center, it may be possible to hold the medical center vicariously liable for the doctor’s medical malpractice. Often, however, doctors are independent contractors, not employees. Vicarious liability is only available for employees. You may be able to hold the doctor directly liable for medical malpractice.

There are slightly different rules for independent contractors in an ER. If a doctor is an independent contractor working in the ER, the hospital may be held accountable under the doctrine of apparent authority.

It may be possible to recover compensatory damages if you are able to show hospital malpractice. Compensatory damages are awarded to make a patient whole, not to punish or deter conduct. These damages can include both economic and noneconomic losses. Economic losses are tangible losses. Often they are documented. They may include medical bills, wage loss, replacement services, and out-of-pocket costs. Noneconomic losses are intangible losses that can vary dramatically depending on your Malone medical malpractice lawyer’s ability to effectively tell your story and the jury members’ beliefs about what kinds of intangible harm would naturally flow from the kinds of injuries you suffered as a result of malpractice. Noneconomic damages could include pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment.

Sometimes a medical center’s malpractice occurs in connection with an injury that took place outside the hospital, but that was also the result of negligence. In that case, it may be important to also bring a third party into the case. For example, a doctor’s failure to treat internal bleeding in connection with a car accident caused by someone else may be a situation in which you could potentially sue the doctor, medical center, and also the at-fault driver.

If you were harmed by medical malpractice at a facility such as Alice Hyde Medical Center, it is advisable to talk to an experienced and skillful trial attorney. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represents hospital malpractice victims and their families in Malone and beyond. Please call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.