Sent Home Too Soon? How Early Hospital Discharges Lead to Medical Malpractice Claims in California
Leaving the hospital is a moment of relief for most people, but for some patients, hospital discharge happens too soon. When hospitals send patients home too soon, the results can be devastating. Patients can suffer serious side effects, fail to heal properly, or even pass away as a result of this malpractice.
That’s why it’s important to work with a medical malpractice lawyer in California from the very beginning of your claim. Attorney Richard M. Ewaniszyk has advocated for patients throughout California who have been harmed by care providers rushing them out the door. Find out how we can help you fight for compensation. Call our medical malpractice law firm at 760-245-7310 to discuss your next steps now.
What Counts as “Sent Home Too Soon?”
To figure out if being sent home too early caused you medical harm, you first have to understand when a discharge is considered premature. If a patient is sent home before it is safe to do so, they may have been discharged too soon. Common example include:
- Going home with unstable vital signs
- Being discharged without critical lab results or imaging studies
- Newborns, elderly patients, and other high-risk patients being sent home without sufficient observation
- Patients sent home before their condition has stabilized after surgery or treatment
- Going home without clear follow-up instructions or prescriptions
- Inadequate outpatient support or follow-up care
The term “premature discharge” is broad, and it’s meant to be—every patient’s situation is different, and what’s considered suitable for one patient may be far too soon for another. When a patient is sent home too early, they can face serious complications, emergency readmissions, and death.
When Early Discharge Crosses the Line Into Medical Malpractice
It isn’t automatically considered malpractice when a patient is sent home too early. This is one misconception that medical malpractice lawyers have to clear up fairly frequently. We may look at the evidence and agree that you were sent home too early—but if nothing happened, there’s no case. To prove negligence in a medical malpractice case, four elements must exist:
- Duty of care: The physician must have had a duty of care to you. Any physician treating you automatically has an obligation to provide safe treatment and proper discharge planning.
- Breach of duty: The physician must fail in that duty in some way—for example, discharging you before your vital signs stabilized or when your condition was actively worsening.
- Causation: You must be able to show that their decision to send you home early led to the injuries or health conditions you later suffered.
- Damages: Your health conditions must have led to physical, emotional, or financial harm.
All of these elements must be present. A doctor may fail in their duty of care, but if they’re lucky enough for the patient to suffer no harm from it, there’s no malpractice. Early discharge may lead to a worsening health condition, but if it’s not considered a breach of duty, there’s no malpractice case. This is why we recommend consulting with a medical malpractice law firm early in the process.
Common Situations Leading to Early Discharge Claims
While any sort of hospital admission may lead to early discharge claims, there are some issues that come up time and time again. Examples include:
- Newly postpartum mothers and babies being sent home before they’ve been checked out for postpartum complications; especially risky for mothers who give birth via C-section or who suffered from preeclampsia
- Surgical patients leaving without sufficient monitoring, resulting in them leaving with a budding infection, bleeding surgical sites, or oozing wounds
- Stroke patients sent home without a full evaluation of their symptoms, leading to their stroke being missed
- Heart attack patients sent home with a diagnosis of “anxiety,” resulting in a late heart attack diagnosis
These issues happen for many different reasons. Medical malpractice attorneys often see these claims when emergency rooms or hospitals are understaffed, leading administration to put pressure on doctors to discharge patients quickly and decrease their case load. These cases may also arise when a hospital is full and administrators want to make room for new patients, leading them to discharge “safe” patients early. Regardless of what led to you being sent home too early, you should seek legal help quickly. You only have one year from the date of discovering your injury or three years from the date of the injury to start your claim.
Choose Ewaniszyk Law Firm for Your Medical Malpractice Case
If an early hospital discharge left you in a dangerous medical situation, you have legal options. The medical malpractice attorneys at Ewaniszyk Law Firm are here to advocate for you as you seek justice. Get started now by calling us at 760-245-7310 or sending us a message online.
Mr. Ewaniszyk was first admitted to practice law in 1982 and he lived and raised his family in the High Desert since 1986. He has successfully represented hundreds of clients each year suffering from serious and catastrophic personal injuries, those accused of criminal offenses, people going through divorce and family law matters, and families facing bankruptcy. Mr. Ewaniszyk has tried many cases in both Federal and State Courts during his extensive career and previously served for five years as the City Attorney for the City of Adelanto. Learn more here.