Managing Partner
Medical malpractice is more than a doctor or other healthcare professional making a mistake. The mistake has to be a departure from accepted standards of care. Victims of malpractice will therefore need strong evidence to substantiate their demand for damages.
Medical charts and notes can play a major role in supporting your malpractice claim. With the right legal representation, you can present a compelling case for the monetary compensation you deserve. Dell & Dean’s Long Island medical malpractice attorneys are ready to help you.
What Can Medical Records Show?
From charts and notes to test results and other items, medical records as a whole provide extensive information about a patient’s medical condition, treatment, outcome, and more. Charts and notes often contain these critical details:
- The patient’s symptoms
- Diagnoses of different illnesses
- The findings of physical evaluations or examinations
- Orders for tests and the test results
- Prescribed medications
- Treatment plans and follow-up instructions
Juries, insurance companies, and lawyers sift through these records because they present a narrative of how the patient was treated. The objective of a Long Island malpractice case is to determine whether the treatment was a departure from accepted medical standards.
How To Use Records In Your Malpractice Claim
Charts, notes, and other records can demonstrate how medical providers failed to conduct themselves according to those accepted standards. For example, they can show that the patient reported certain symptoms. If nothing was done in response, this could indicate malpractice.
Another possible example concerns laboratory and imaging tests. The patient’s records may show these tests were ordered, but then never actually carried out. Or that the tests produced results which should have indicated a medical condition that was never diagnosed.
With the help of a Long Island medical malpractice lawyer, you can put together a timeline that shows where critical errors were made. Combined with the testimony of an expert witness, you can then compare this treatment to the standard of care you should have received.
How Missing Records May Help
Healthcare providers like doctors and hospitals should maintain a healthy paper trail to document the patient’s care. When records are missing, however, they naturally raise suspicion. Here again an expert may weigh in on medical recordkeeping practices.
Say, for example, your doctor claims they evaluated your worsening symptoms but determined that no additional testing was necessary. However, there are no progress notes to support this. In that case, it may be difficult to evaluate whether the medical decision was reasonable.
Incomplete records alone will probably not prove that your provider committed malpractice. But it could cause a Long Island jury to more closely scrutinize the provider’s actions. More broadly, it may undermine the provider’s claim that they adhered to accepted standards of care.
Additionally, the fact of missing charts and notes may help your attorney criticize the doctor’s credibility. Your doctor may present an image of their practice that simply does not line up with the reality of your medical records.
The Value of Knowledgeable Legal Counsel
If you were the victim of malpractice, you need an attorney who understands the law and how to prove your case. Charts and notes are helpful, and your lawyer will understand what sort of evidence can help you. Plus, your attorney will know how to obtain these records.
One of the most important steps of a malpractice case is selecting an expert witness who can assist. This individual will know what to look for in the medical records, how to interpret the information in them, and how they compare to the standard of care.
Of course, this is only part of your case. You will also need to prove other elements like negligence and damages. That’s why you need to speak with a knowledgeable Long Island law firm that is ready to develop a strong case for monetary damages.
If you or a loved one suffered medical malpractice, don’t delay taking legal action. You owe it to yourself and your family to learn more about your rights. Connect today with Dell & Dean for a free initial consultation to get started.
