Nurse Malpractice in Georgia: Your Legal Rights
Nurses are the frontline of patient care. They administer medications, monitor vital signs, communicate with physicians, and provide the hands-on care that patients depend on. When a nurse’s negligence causes harm, the consequences can be devastating. Nursing malpractice in Georgia occurs when a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, or nurse practitioner fails to meet the standard of care expected of their profession, and that failure directly causes patient injury. Both the individual nurse and their employer (typically a hospital or clinic) can be held liable.
Common Forms of Nursing Negligence
- Medication errors: Administering the wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong route, or at the wrong time. Failing to check patient allergies before administration. These errors cause an estimated 7,000-9,000 deaths annually in the U.S.
- Failure to monitor: Not checking vital signs at required intervals, ignoring alarms on monitoring equipment, or failing to recognize deteriorating patient condition
- Failure to communicate: Not reporting changes in patient condition to the attending physician, failing to follow through on physician orders, or inadequate shift-change handoffs
- Falls prevention failures: Not implementing fall risk protocols for at-risk patients, leaving bed rails down, failing to assist ambulating patients, or not responding to bed alarms
- Pressure ulcer/bedsore negligence: Failing to reposition immobile patients, inadequate skin assessments, and ignoring early signs of pressure injury
- IV/injection errors: Infiltration, extravasation of vesicant medications, improper central line care leading to infection, or air embolism
- Patient abandonment: Leaving assigned patients unattended without proper coverage
- Documentation failures: Inaccurate or incomplete charting that leads to subsequent treatment errors
Hospital Liability for Nursing Negligence
In most cases, the hospital that employs the nurse is vicariously liable for the nurse’s negligence under the doctrine of respondeat superior. This means you can sue both the nurse individually and the hospital. The hospital is typically the more important defendant because it has greater financial resources and insurance coverage.
Additionally, hospitals have an independent duty to maintain adequate nurse-to-patient ratios. When understaffing contributes to nursing errors, the hospital can be held directly liable under the theory of corporate negligence, separate from vicarious liability.
Georgia Legal Requirements
O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71: Two-year statute of limitations from the negligent act, five-year statute of repose.
O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1: Expert affidavit required with the malpractice complaint.
O.C.G.A. § 51-1-27: Standard of care is that degree of care and skill ordinarily employed by the nursing profession under similar conditions.
Compensation Available
Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-4, compensation includes all medical expenses for corrective treatment, lost wages and earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and wrongful death damages under O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2 if the negligence caused death. Punitive damages under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1 may be available if the nurse or hospital acted with willful or wanton disregard for patient safety.
The Role of Nursing Standards
Expert testimony in nursing malpractice cases typically references standards established by the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Georgia Board of Nursing regulations, hospital-specific policies and procedures, and nationally recognized clinical practice guidelines. Violation of these standards is strong evidence of negligence.
Contact the Wetherington Law Firm
If you or a loved one were harmed by nursing negligence in Georgia, contact the Wetherington Law Firm for a free consultation. We have the expertise and resources to take on hospitals and their insurance companies. We work on contingency — you pay nothing unless we win.
Call now: (404) 888-1111 | Free consultation