John Peter Smith Hospital Fort Worth Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for John Peter Smith Hospital Patients and Families

The Types of JPS Hospital Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles John Peter Smith Hospital lawsuits in Fort Worth, Texas, involving trauma and emergency care, maternal and newborn care, and surgery. Our attorneys build each lawsuit from the full chart, following the patient’s care from the first assessment to discharge. Our hospital malpractice lawyers then work with medical experts to show where that care fell short and what the harm has cost the family.

The cases we see most often at a public trauma and teaching hospital like John Peter Smith Hospital include:

• Trauma and emergency care errors. An internal injury, a bleed, or a head injury can go unrecognized, imaging or surgery can be delayed, or a patient whose condition changes may not be reassessed. The result can be a permanent disability, more surgery, or the loss of a loved one. We handle these as missed or delayed diagnosis claims and trace every hour of the stay through the triage notes, scan results, and vital signs.
• Maternal and newborn care errors. Warning signs during pregnancy or delivery can go unanswered, or a newborn’s breathing trouble, low blood sugar, or infection can be missed. Harm at birth can affect a mother’s health and a child’s whole life, bringing years of treatment and therapy. Our Fort Worth birth injury lawyers compare the fetal monitoring and delivery notes with the newborn’s early charting to find when the signs first appeared.
• Surgical care errors. An injury during an operation can go unnoticed, a procedure can be performed on the wrong site, or a complication after surgery can be caught too late. The patient may need more operations, a longer admission, and additional recovery time. Our Fort Worth surgical error lawyers read the operative and anesthesia records beside the post-operative nursing notes.

While these are the more common claim types, our hospital malpractice attorneys handle any valid medical negligence case that arises at this hospital.

About John Peter Smith Hospital on South Main Street in Fort Worth

John Peter Smith Hospital is a large public hospital at 1500 South Main Street in Fort Worth, Texas, in Tarrant County. It is owned by the Tarrant County Hospital District, known as JPS Health Network, whose board is appointed by the Tarrant County Commissioners Court. The hospital provides trauma care, behavioral health, maternal and neonatal care, and primary and specialty medicine.

John Peter Smith Hospital appears on the Texas Department of State Health Services roster as a Level I trauma facility. The same agency places it in the Level IV section of its maternal facilities list and the Level III section of its neonatal facilities list. Seriously injured patients are cared for by the hospital’s Trauma, Acute Care Surgery and Forensic Nursing Services.

Patients also arrive through the hospital’s Emergency Department and its Psychiatric Emergency Center, both part of John Peter Smith Hospital. JPS runs residency and fellowship programs, and it describes Acclaim Health as “the JPS multispecialty physician group.”

One patient’s care can involve physicians in training alongside attending physicians and Acclaim Health’s physicians. Each of them leaves a separate record, and a claim has to bring those records together to show who made each decision. Our Fort Worth medical malpractice lawyers handle claims involving care at hospitals across the city, JPS Hospital among them.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against John Peter Smith Hospital, the Doctor, or Both?

You may be able to sue John Peter Smith Hospital, a doctor, or both, depending on who caused the harm. The hospital’s owner is a governmental unit, and Section 101.021 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code waives its immunity only narrowly. The waiver reaches injury from an employee’s use of a motor vehicle or motor-driven equipment, or from a condition or use of tangible personal or real property.

Which provider can be named depends on who employed them. The Texas Tort Claims Act counts a person in the district’s paid service as an employee and leaves independent contractors out of that definition. A physician who is not a district employee can answer for their own care.

The choice of defendants carries weight. Under Section 101.106, filing suit under the Act against the district is an irrevocable election. What that election means for claims against employees depends on who is named, the scope of their work, and timing. A lawyer to sue a hospital weighs those choices before anything is filed, because they cannot easily be undone.

A malpractice claim also falls under Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. It requires a qualified medical expert’s report within 120 days after each defendant’s original answer is filed, or the claim against that defendant is dismissed on motion. Our Fort Worth hospital malpractice lawyers explain how these rules work together in a hospital claim. Our firm also represents patients injured at other Fort Worth hospitals, including Cook Children’s Medical Center and Medical City Surgical Hospital Alliance.

Medicine carries risk, and a bad outcome is not always negligence. When an injury was preventable, the providers responsible should be held accountable, and we will tell you plainly what your records show.

How Much Can a Family Recover From JPS Hospital Under the Texas Tort Claims Act?

Under the Tort Claims Act, the district that owns John Peter Smith Hospital is liable for no more than $100,000 for each person and $300,000 for each single occurrence. Section 101.023 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code sets those limits for bodily injury or death against a county hospital district. Neither limit applies until a claim fits the waiver in Section 101.021.

The two figures work together. The $100,000 limit applies to each person, and the $300,000 limit is the most the district pays for all bodily injury or death from a single occurrence. When one event harms more than one person, their claims share that larger limit.

The limits are written for the district’s liability under the Act. A physician outside the district’s paid service is not a district employee under the Act and can answer for their own care. Chapter 74 sets its own limits on noneconomic damages, meaning losses such as pain that carry no price tag, in claims against physicians.

For a family, the first question is whether the harm fits the waiver at all. A claim against the district that falls outside Section 101.021 never reaches the limits, because the district’s immunity stays in place.

The medical records and employment records answer that question and shape what can be recovered. The chart shows whether equipment or property was part of the harm, and employment records show whether each provider was in the district’s paid service. Written notice to the district is also generally due within six months of the incident, so that work starts early.

How We Work With Injured JPS Hospital Patients and Their Families

Hastings Law Firm’s hospital malpractice lawyers work with injured John Peter Smith Hospital patients and families in Fort Worth, Texas, on claims over the care they received there. We gather the records, bring in qualified medical experts, and track the notice deadlines that come with a claim against a public hospital.

Your first call is answered by a member of our intake team, and a family member can call on behalf of a patient who is unable to. Tell us what you remember about the care, the dates, and who was involved, and our team works to make sure you are heard. We then request the complete records, including emergency and trauma records, imaging, operative and anesthesia records, nursing notes, and discharge papers, plus labor and newborn records where they apply. Because notice to a public hospital is generally due within six months, our attorneys and medical professionals begin reading them right away.

If our hospital negligence lawyers take your case, we speak for you with the district and its legal team. Our board-certified patient advocates remain your point of contact, and when the case moves, they explain what changed in plain language. Our hospital malpractice attorneys seek a settlement equal to what the injury has taken from your family. If the offer does not measure up, we are ready to try the case before a jury.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at JPS Hospital, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm takes on hospital malpractice claims arising from care at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, for injured patients and their families. Our hospital negligence lawyers review what happened, identify who may be responsible, and check how much time remains to give notice to a public hospital.

We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim. The review is confidential, and there is no fee unless we win. Our team is here for you. Contact us to understand your options.