Summerville Medical Center

• Misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis

A misdiagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider incorrectly identifies a condition. A missed diagnosis occurs when a condition that should have been identified is overlooked entirely. Both can delay necessary treatment and allow a serious condition to progress unchecked. In emergency and urgent care settings, where providers work quickly under pressure, missed diagnoses of conditions such as stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and sepsis are among the most litigated forms of hospital negligence.

• Surgical Errors and Procedural Mistakes

Summerville Medical Center performs a wide range of surgical procedures, including orthopedic, spinal, gynecological, robotic, and general surgeries. When a surgical error results from a departure from accepted techniques, miscommunication among the operating team, or a failure to follow preoperative protocols, the consequences can be permanent and life-altering.

• Obstetric and Neonatal Negligence

Summerville Medical Center provides labor and delivery services and a Level III NICU, caring for a significant number of families in Dorchester and Berkeley counties. Errors during labor and delivery, including failure to respond to fetal distress, improper use of delivery instruments, and mismanagement of high-risk pregnancies, can cause serious harm to both mother and infant. Neonatal negligence in the NICU setting has its own specific standard of care obligations and pattern of preventable errors.

• Pediatric Negligence

The hospital’s dedicated pediatric emergency room, inpatient unit, and intensive care unit serve a substantial number of children from across the Lowcountry. Pediatric patients require age-specific clinical judgment regarding medication dosing, diagnostic interpretation, and monitoring. When providers apply adult-oriented standards to pediatric patients without making the appropriate adjustments, the results can be serious.

• Emergency Room Errors

Summerville Medical Center’s emergency department treats a large number of patients with varying levels of severity. ER errors, including mistriage, delayed evaluation of time-sensitive conditions, failure to act on diagnostic results, and miscommunication between providers, can cause preventable harm in the high-pressure environment of emergency medicine.

• Medication Errors

Incorrect medications, incorrect dosages, failure to screen for contraindications or drug interactions, and errors in medication administration at any stage of a hospital stay are preventable and legally actionable when they cause patient harm.

• Hospital-Acquired Infections

Poor sanitation, inadequate sterilization of surgical instruments, failure to follow infection control protocols, and improper wound care can lead to infections that patients did not have when they entered the hospital. Hospital-acquired infections, including MRSA, C. difficile, and surgical site infections, are among the most common and preventable complications of hospital care.

• Patient Falls and Neglect

Patients identified as being at risk of falling are entitled to care that implements appropriate fall prevention protocols, including bed alarms, assistive devices, and adequate supervision. If facilities fail to follow their own protocols and a patient is injured as a result, the hospital may be liable. Similarly, patients who depend on staff for basic needs, such as nutrition, hydration, repositioning, and hygiene, are entitled to have these needs met. Failure to provide this basic care constitutes neglect and can result in a negligence claim.

• Failure to Monitor and Delayed Treatment Response

Patients whose conditions deteriorate and whose clinical signs indicate a need for intervention are entitled to have that need recognized and addressed in a timely manner. Failure to adequately monitor, failure to escalate care when clinical signs warrant it, and failure to communicate a change in condition among treating providers are all forms of negligence that can transform a manageable complication into a catastrophic outcome.