Are you a lawyer tasked with handling personal injury cases? Well, in that case, you must be aware of how important medical records are. Clearly, medical records are one of the key pieces of evidence that helps in standing a better chance against the opponent and winning a trial. In other words, it is one of the factors that determine your chances of winning a personal injury trial. However, the volume of medical records you need for the case may vary as per the type of personal injury case.
Here’s a closer look at some of the various types of personal injury claims and why they need medical record reviews.
What Are the Types of Personal Injury Claims?
The volume of medical records required in a personal injury trial depends on the type of claim. According to the law of the land in the United States, lawyers need to provide medical records of their clients involved in any personal injury claim. This is where the different types of the personal injury claims factor in.
- Vehicle Accidents: These types of cases are the most common ones in the US. As a lawyer, you must have accident victims reaching out to you fairly. Of course, you will need their records to strengthen the case and claim compensation from the person at fault. A thorough medical summarization will help you point out the sufferings and expenses of your client in court and let the faulty person get his fair share of sufferings.
- Workplace Accidents: In case of an accident at any workplace, it is the employer’s liability to pay compensation to the victims. It is the duty of the employers to ensure that their employees work in a safe environment. So, if you have a victim of negligence at the workplace, you will need the victim’s medical records to put up a proper fight.
- Medical Malpractice: Negligent behavior on part of the medical professionals like surgeons, doctors, or even nurses, can directly or indirectly have an adverse impact on patients. Sometimes, it can even lead to death. So, when a victim of any medical malpractice case approaches you for justice, you need their medical records to build up a solid case and help them get the compensation they deserve. Sometimes, personal injury claims arising from medical malpractice can even run into millions.
Medical errors like surgical errors, removing the wrong organ, or damaging any nerve while operating should never be excused. Though you must be solely focused on doing your best to help your client get a fair amount of compensation, it will still help you do something for the general public. So, these doctors need to be exposed so that people get to know that they are not reliable enough to put their lives in their hands.
How does a Medical Summarization help in the trial?
Medical summarization has a customized summary of the medical history of a patient. In the summary, all the medical records are arranged in a systematic way so that anyone can understand and go through them easily. Here is a list of a few things that a medical summary generally includes:
- Date of the bill.
- Date of the service or treatment received.
- Description of service or treatment underwent.
- Definition of the CPT code that is used to identify the service or procedure.
- Receipts of hospital bills to the insurance company and patient.
- Records of the healthcare provider.
- Balance/amount due.
- Any duplicate charges.
- Insurance payments.
- Patient payments.
- Calculation of the total amount of all charges paid by the insurance company and patient.
The Bottom Line
Overall, to fight the case against a medical professional, you need every detail of your client’s medical history, and for that, you can rely only on professional medical record reviewing companies. So, don’t waste your time collecting and going through their medical records on your own. Instead, you should seek the help of professionals for the job. Hire a good medical reviewer and do your best to get your client a fair compensation for their sufferings.