Hospice care facilities, like any type of health care provider, can be held liable for medical malpractice. Often, families of patients in hospice care don’t realize that since their loved ones are there to receive palliative care to keep them as comfortable as possible as they approach the end.
Typically, all possible medical interventions to cure any terminal medical condition a person is suffering have been exhausted by the time someone enters hospice care. As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) puts it, “to make terminally ill patients, with a life expectancy of 6 months or less, be as physically and emotionally comfortable as possible and to support their families and other caregivers throughout the process.”
Providing a reasonable level of care
In fact, patients in hospice care can be the victims of medical negligence and errors. Hospice facilities and their staff have an obligation to provide a reasonable level of care. As the CMS describes it, patients “have the right to be free from abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and misappropriation of patient property.” It continues, “When hospices cause harm or fail to prevent or mitigate harm caused by others, patients are deprived of these basic rights.”
This can include anything from failing to provide adequate food, liquid or pain medication to not treating medical conditions that may be unrelated to the underlying terminal condition. For example, a terminal cancer patient could suffer a fatal heart attack because no one responded when they went into cardiac arrest.
Multiple scenarios could lead to a viable medical malpractice claim against a hospice provider. Any such claims must be taken seriously. If you are facing one or concerned that you may be, you seek experienced legal guidance to protect your business.