Hospital Negligence during COVID-19

Hospital Negligence during COVID-19

Personal protective equipments or simply called "PPE" allows you to cover up and protect yourself from something hazardous from the nature of your work, but it doesn't just end there. PPE covers a variety of necessary things that have anything to do with safety from clothing items like gloves or goggles all the way to more extreme protection such as respirators against hazardous conditions. It's important for people in any field, especially working with contaminant hazards because regardless of what line of work they are in, any form of subtle danger is present, especially medical professionals deal with viruses on every day basis so wearing proper gear is essential as well. 

In this pandemic, our frontliners - medical professionals, are our first line of defense dealing with the COVID-19, from its outbreak until now, they are restless for more than a year just to make sure their sworn pledge to assist patients for their recuperation and prevent the spread of the virus. Given that, they are the ones who are highly susceptible from the virus along with street sweepers, delivery guys, and other workers whose work is actively staying outside to offer their service to the masses. The COVID-19 positivity rate among medical practitioners are relatively high compared to the general community.

According to The Lancet, the prevalence of COVID-19 in 2020 was 2747 cases per 100 000 front-line health care workers, compared with 242 cases in the general community. The highest numbers were reported in areas around New York and London as well as Louisiana and other US states such as New Jersey. In 2021, numbers are distributed fairly among healthcare workers and general community because of few factors such as: both has the ability to go out and make contact with other people which is the main cause of the spread, inadequate adherance to the protocol and for healthcare workers is the lack of PPE being given by the hosital management. 

Some people who get COVID-19 on the job might be wondering if they can sue their employer for compensation. If you believe it was your employer's or management's fault, then most of the time you will not have a chance to file a personal injury lawsuit but instead must focus on filing with workers' comp, according to our lawyers and the details vary state to state (this is a law imposed years back then as a replacement to troublesome personal lawsuit). If you were iinfected in the course of your medical job because of your employer's intentional wrongdoing, as opposed to mere negligence, your are allowed to seek workers' comp still in many states. 

What are the examples of negligence? 

You are eligible for filing a workers' comp if your employer of management of the hospital happened to exhibit these negligence:

• Failure to provide enough supplies of face masks, plexiglass barriers (face shields), and other personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriate for the workplace, in this context, anti-contaminant all over suits and oxygens. As these inadequancies, even if one is not present or one is substandard, it still may cause one to be infected and this fact alone is highly eligible for filing workers' comp.
  
  
• Lack of implementation of social-distancing measures like staggering schedules and rearranging work stations and World Health Organization's (WHO) implemented health measures during this pandemic such as getting a hand washing section or hand sanitizing space when coming in or outside the establishment to avoid possible spread inside and outside workspace and plexiglass installed around counters and information booths.
  
  
• Low ventilation may be a form of negligence as hospital has to be continuous air flow for the virus and other microorganisms not to settle in the surface of the room or even in the skin of the people working in it.
  
  
• Misorganized patients papers can be also considered as a negligence since it may result into failure of filtering and assorting patients, identifying which are COVID-19 patients and which are not for healthcare workers to be prepared and wear apt PPE when dealing with one. 

If you are a victim of this medical negligence by your employer, you can always file a claim for workers' comp by working with an injury law firm. Injuries or even disease (which is even worse) sustained on the job such as being a healthcare worker, can be a very devastating injury that are costly to both your physical and mental state of being, which in this case, a COVID-19 struck on you, would be life-threatening. If you have been infected at work due to medical negligence, immediately resort to Ryan LLP, they are here for you as an experienced workers' compensation law firm with years in experience working specifically in this niche.