As a Houston, Texas medical malpractice attorney, I have handled cases and lawsuits involving care provided in virtually every Memorial Hermann hospital.
The Memorial Hermann Health System is the largest non-profit health system in Southeast Texas and regularly adds clinics and hospitals to its network.
In 2017, Emerus Holdings Inc. entered into a new joint venture partnership with Memorial Hermann Health System, contributing its facilities in Tomball and Sugar Land to the joint venture. Those facilities are now operated under the Memorial Hermann brand name.
Memorial Hermann Tomball Hospital
The hospital now known as Memorial Hermann Tomball Hospital was originally opened as a micro-hospital by Emerus in 2006. Its original focus was to be an emergency center with a small footprint, offering additional services including primary care, diagnostic imaging, and a laboratory.
Under the new name of Memorial Hermann Tomball Hospital, the facility, which is located at 24429 Tomball Parkway, Tomball, TX 77375, offers a 24/7 emergency center that is staffed by emergency medicine professionals. The hospital’s emergency room has a digital x-ray machine, CT scanner, ultrasound machine, and an on-site laboratory. In addition, the hospital now has a limited inpatient capability, offering hospital admission to emergency room patients who require overnight stays for observation and additional testing.
Lawsuits involving emergency room misdiagnosis, mistakes, and care
Health care provided in a hospital emergency room standard is evaluated, under Texas law, by a heightened standard called willful and wanton negligence. The idea behind this law is that doctors and nurses involved in bona fide emergency care are operating under increased stress and time constraints.
In other types of Texas medical malpractice cases, the legal question is whether the hospital, physician, or nurse acted in a way that an equivalent provider would have done in the same or similar circumstances. The standard is called general negligence.
For hospital emergency room cases, though, willful and wanton negligence, which the Texas Supreme Court has described as equivalent to gross negligence, requires greater proof. There must be evidence that the physician, nurse, or other provider had actual knowledge of something that posed a risk to the patient, but disregarded that risk and continued with conscious indifference toward it.
Because of the demanding nature of Texas law, I always recommend that people harmed by poor medical, hospital, or nursing care hire an experienced medical malpractice attorney. When it comes to navigating a minefield of hospital emergency room cases, this is even more important.
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When it comes to hiring a medical malpractice attorney, experience matters. If you or someone you love has been seriously injured by medical or hospital malpractice, our experienced medical negligence attorneys can help. Click here to send us a confidential email via our “Contact Us” form or call us at 281-580-8800.
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Robert Painter is a medical malpractice attorney at Painter Law Firm PLLC, in Houston, Texas. He is a former hospital administrator who represents patients and family members in medical negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against hospitals, physicians, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other healthcare providers. A member of the board of directors of the Houston Bar Association, he was honored, in 2017, by H Texas as one of Houston’s top lawyers. In May 2018, the Better Business Bureau recognized Painter Law Firm PLLC with its Award of Distinction.
