Some medical malpractice is truly egregious. A physician comes to work drunk and injures a patient because they are not in the state to do their job safely. Other times, doctors may simply cut a few corners when handling routine matters. What seems minor to them can have life-altering consequences for patients.
The failure to follow the right procedures with every patient consistently can lead to major oversights and errors on the part of a physician. Diagnosing a patient is one of the most important responsibilities that a physician fulfills. They take information about seemingly unrelated symptoms and can determine the underlying cause of that person’s medical challenges.
While it is very easy to rush through the diagnostic process, doing so can lead to a doctor reaching the wrong conclusion and the patient not receiving the care they deserve. It has never been easier for doctors to accurately diagnose patients, and yet diagnostic errors remain a serious medical concern.
Doctors are under a lot of pressure
There was once a time when many physicians operated independent medical practices. Most physicians are now employees working for hospitals or corporate medical practices. They have to meet certain standards regarding how many patients they see per day. They have to be very brief when interacting with each patient.
Unfortunately, that pressure on a physician’s time can result in preventable mistakes when diagnosing them. Instead of referring someone out for testing, a doctor might rush to the conclusion that a specific malady is to blame for the patient’s symptoms.
Rather than sending test samples to a laboratory or further investigating to confirm what caused a patient’s symptoms, they determine that the most obvious cause of their symptoms is likely to blame. Doctors could diagnose someone who has lung cancer with a chest cold if they don’t rule out potential causes of an illness before diagnosing a patient with a less serious condition.
Diagnostic errors affect the health of thousands of people every year. Some of those mistakes only turn up in a postmortem analysis after a patient dies. Patients dealing with worse symptoms because of a diagnostic delay and those grieving the death of a loved one may need to consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit in response to diagnostic errors.
Medical malpractice lawsuits can help cover care costs of those affected. They can also offer healthcare providers a potent reminder of why following diagnostic procedures rather than making assumptions is the best course of action.