St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center Malpractice Lawyer

Trial-Ready Hospital Negligence Attorneys for St. Joseph’s Patients and Families in Phoenix

The Types of St. Joseph’s Hospital Lawsuits Our Hospital Malpractice Attorneys Handle

Hastings Law Firm handles St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center malpractice lawsuits for patients and families after harm in Phoenix, Arizona, against whoever the records show was responsible. That can be the hospital, its staff, or the physicians and physician groups who treat patients on its campus. Our attorneys handle claims over brain and spine surgery errors, emergency and trauma diagnosis errors, and birth and newborn intensive care injuries.

The cases we see most often at a Level I trauma and academic hospital like St. Joseph’s include:

• Brain and spine surgery errors. A mistake during neurosurgery, spine surgery or a procedure on the blood vessels of the brain can damage the nervous system. So can a complication nobody recognizes after the operation. A patient can lose movement, sensation, speech or independence, and a family can face years of care. Our Arizona neurosurgeon malpractice lawyers set the operative report beside the neurological checks and imaging from the hours and days that followed.
• Emergency and trauma diagnosis errors. A serious condition can be overlooked, or its treatment delayed, in the emergency department or the trauma bay. Once the window for effective treatment has closed, a patient can be left with permanent harm, or a family with a loss that earlier care might have prevented. Our Phoenix medical misdiagnosis lawyers trace every symptom, test result and order in the emergency record to show when the diagnosis should have been made.
• Birth injuries and newborn intensive care errors. A high-risk or transferred pregnancy can receive too little attention, or a delivery can come after the signs called for it. A newborn in intensive care can also be treated or monitored too late. A child can be left with lifelong disabilities, and parents with therapy and medical needs to plan around for many years. Our Phoenix birth injury attorneys read the transfer notes, fetal heart tracings and NICU flow sheets together to pinpoint when each response was due.

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

About St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix

St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center is a large nonprofit academic hospital at 350 W Thomas Rd in Phoenix, in Maricopa County. It is a nonprofit Dignity Health hospital, part of CommonSpirit Health. The Arizona Department of Health Services lists St. Joseph’s among the state’s designated Level I trauma centers, and its emergency department is open around the clock.

Barrow Neurological Institute is located on the St. Joseph’s campus. Barrow is devoted to the treatment, research and education of brain and spinal diseases, conditions and injuries. Neurosurgery there includes cerebrovascular surgery, which treats the blood vessels of the brain, and skull-base surgery. Barrow also has a joint pediatric partnership with Phoenix Children’s.

The hospital’s other services include heart and vascular care with interventional cardiology, and general surgery that offers minimally invasive and robotic-assisted options. For obstetrics, Creighton University describes St. Joseph’s as a tertiary care center that receives maternal transports, meaning pregnant patients transferred in from other facilities. According to the hospital’s own website, its neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, is Level III.

St. Joseph’s is a teaching hospital as well. Resident physicians and fellows train there in programs sponsored by Creighton University School of Medicine-Phoenix.

Can You File a Lawsuit Against St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, the Doctor, or Both?

You may be able to file a lawsuit against St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, against the provider who treated you, or against both. Which of them is named depends on who made the error and how that person was connected to the hospital. Arizona holds a hospital responsible when an employee, such as a nurse or technician, is negligent in the course of the job.

That rule is called vicarious liability.

Physicians at St. Joseph’s do not all share one relationship with the hospital. Its community benefit report distinguishes employed faculty physicians from credentialed community physicians, so each provider’s relationship has to be checked. Who employed a physician shapes who is named in the claim.

A contract calling a physician independent does not decide the question in Arizona. Courts look at how much control the hospital actually exercised over that physician’s work. A hospital can also be responsible for an independent physician under apparent agency. That applies when the hospital’s own conduct led the patient to reasonably believe the physician was its employee or agent.

When more than one defendant is at fault, Arizona generally makes each pay only its own share of the damages under A.R.S. 12-2506. For that reason, a lawyer to sue a hospital identifies every health care provider or facility involved before the claim is filed.

Before the case goes far, the patient must also state in writing whether expert testimony is needed to prove it. If so, a sworn preliminary expert opinion affidavit has to be served with the initial disclosures, or the claim risks dismissal. Our Phoenix hospital malpractice lawyers can show how employment, apparent agency and the affidavit rule apply to a claim like yours.

Does Signing a Consent Form at St. Joseph’s in Phoenix Prevent a Malpractice Claim in Arizona?

Signing a consent form at St. Joseph’s in Phoenix does not, by itself, prevent a malpractice claim in Arizona. The form records that a patient agreed to a procedure. It does not excuse care that fell below the accepted standard, and Arizona law still asks whether the provider met that standard and whether a failure caused the injury.

A separate claim can arise when a provider did not adequately explain the risks of a procedure the patient agreed to. This is known as an informed consent claim, and Arizona treats it as a negligence claim. It is judged against what a reasonably prudent provider in the same field would have disclosed.

A procedure the patient never agreed to, or one that went beyond the consent given, can be brought as a battery claim, meaning treatment given without the patient’s permission. An Arizona statute tried to remove that claim against health care providers. In Duncan v. Scottsdale Medical Imaging, the Arizona Supreme Court confirmed that patients keep the right to bring it despite that statute.

At a hospital where complex brain, spine and other surgery takes place, what was said before a procedure can matter as much as the procedure itself. The signed consent form, the pre-procedure notes and the patient’s own memory of what was explained are all part of the records our team reviews.

How We Work With Injured St. Joseph’s Hospital Patients and Families

Hastings Law Firm represents St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center patients and families in hospital malpractice claims in Phoenix, Arizona. Your first call about harm at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center is answered by a member of our intake team. A relative can make that call for a patient who cannot.

Tell us about the care as you remember it, the names you recall, and any explanation given after the outcome. Our team works to make sure you are heard, and your account shapes the review that follows.

Our team requests the complete medical records for you. Our attorneys and medical professionals go through the surgical reports, emergency notes, nursing entries and medication orders to establish what was done and what was missed. A case we accept rests on that evidence and on the independent physicians our hospital negligence lawyers retain to explain it.

As your legal team, we handle all communication with the hospital, its insurer and its defense lawyers. Our board-certified patient advocates keep in contact with you and explain each development in plain language when it happens. We negotiate for a settlement that accounts for everything the injury has taken from your family. If an offer does not reflect those losses, our attorneys are prepared to take the case to trial.

If You or a Loved One Were Injured at St. Joseph’s Hospital Phoenix, Speak With Our Medical Attorneys Today

Hastings Law Firm handles hospital malpractice claims in Phoenix, Arizona, for you or someone close to you living with the effects of care at St. Joseph’s. We perform a free case review to find out whether you have a valid claim, and against which providers. When our hospital negligence lawyers conclude that a hard outcome was not malpractice, we will tell you so directly.

Our team is here for you. Everything you share with us stays confidential, and you owe no fees or costs unless we win. Our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyers can help you find the answers you deserve.