Wrong Patient Error Claim Type Guide

A wrong-patient event is fundamentally an identification and workflow question

If care was provided to the wrong patient or records/orders were applied to the wrong person, reconstruct how identity was verified at registration, ordering, medication administration, testing, procedure, and documentation stages.

Records that may identify the breakdown

• Registration and encounter records
• Orders and labels tied to patient identifiers
• Medication administration or procedure verification records
• Laboratory, radiology, or pathology identifiers
• Correction or addendum entries in the chart
• Later treatment for any resulting injury

Do not stop at the labeling error

The civil claim still requires analysis of actual injury and causation. Counsel may also need to identify whether the problem arose from an individual act, an institutional process, or both.