Medical Diagnostic Errors are Harming Patients

Medical Diagnostic Errors are Harming Patients
Receiving the correct diagnosis is critical of any patient's medical care. When physicians and other health care providers fail to make accurate and timely diagnoses, they place their patients at risk of serious harm.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report identifying diagnostic errors as a persistent and pervasive problem.  The report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, characterized such errors as a decades-long "blind spot" within the U.S. health care system that "continues to harm an unacceptable number of patients." Each year one out of 20 adults receiving outpatient care in the U.S. experiences a diagnostic error.

Defining diagnostic errors
According to the IOM report, a diagnostic error involves any of the following three circumstances:

• An inaccurate diagnosis
• An untimely diagnosis
• A failure to communicate a diagnosis to the patient

An inaccurate diagnosis is the easiest type of diagnostic error. One example would be diagnosing a patient’s abdominal pain as a stomach ulcer when they actually have pancreatic cancer.

A diagnosis is untimely when it is meaningfully delayed. These errors can be difficult to identify because the definition of timeliness depends on context. For example, if a patient goes to the emergency room complaining of acute chest pain and shortness of breath, reaching an accurate diagnosis within minutes or hours would be considered timely. For other circumstances, making a diagnosis in weeks or months may be considered timely.

Finally, an accurate and timely diagnosis cannot benefit a patient unless it is effectively communicated to the patient. Without accurate, complete information, the patient is unable to consider and pursue appropriate treatment options.

Possible harms
The authors of the IOM report conducted a comprehensive review of the scientific literature in an attempt to understand the frequency, severity and impact of diagnostic errors. They found that the problem is both widespread and long-standing, as evidenced by the following statistics highlighted in the IOM report:

• 5% of U.S. adults who seek outpatient care each year experience a diagnostic error
• Diagnostic errors contribute to approximately 10% of patient deaths
• Diagnostic errors account for 6% to 17% of hospital adverse events
• Diagnostic errors are the leading type of paid medical malpractice claims, and are twice as likely to have resulted in the patient’s death

Diagnostic errors can cause serious physical harm, including death, through two basic pathways:

• A delay in appropriate treatment for a serious disease, or by provision of unnecessary, harmful treatments.

Example:
Consider a patient complaining of chest pain who is diagnosed with heartburn but actually is having a heart attack. The patient could die if he is sent home with antacids, instead of being given lifesaving treatments to open a blocked coronary artery.

Conversely, if a patient has chest pain due to heartburn, but is misdiagnosed with a heart attack, he may suffer complications while undergoing unnecessary invasive cardiac procedures.

• Diagnostic errors also may cause psychological harm.

Example:
A patient misdiagnosed with lung cancer when she actually has a benign lung problem could experience significant unnecessary anxiety about the serious side effects of proposed treatments, end-of-life care and her family's well-being in the face of her illness.

Diagnostic errors can lead to financial harm because of the costs resulting from unnecessary treatments and related complications.

If you or a loved one has suffered personal injury or death due to medical negligence, the attorneys of Miller Weisbrod are ready to assist you. We offer honest answers, straightforward legal advice, and caring support throughout the legal process, bringing our collective experience and in-depth medical knowledge to every case.

For an assessment of your case and your legal options in seeking financial compensation, we invite you to call Miller Weisbrod, LLP, in Dallas at 214.987.0005 or toll free at 888.987.0005 for a free consultation. You may also contact us by e-mail.