Failure to Diagnose or Misdiagnosis In Atlanta
Many serious illnesses are easily curable when promptly diagnosed and treated before the condition worsens or the disease progresses. Unfortunately, we sometimes place our trust in a physician or other medical provider only to suffer an adverse outcome or a worsened medical condition due to a physician’s negligence. Two of the most common causes of medical malpractice in Atlanta and elsewhere include misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose.
If you think you’ve suffered harm from a doctor’s failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis of your condition, an attorney for medical malpractice in Atlanta from Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC can help.
What Is Failure to Diagnose and How Does It Impact a Patient?
When a doctor or medical facility makes an error or oversight, the result can be devastating for a patient, with serious and sometimes permanent health consequences and economic damages. Failure to accurately and promptly diagnose a medical condition allows the condition to persist, often worsen, and lead to an adverse medical outcome. The most common causes of a doctor’s failure to diagnose include the following:
- Not ordering the correct diagnostic and imaging tests
- Incorrectly interpreting diagnostic or imaging test results
- Failing to obtain a complete patient history
- Incomplete transfer of patient history (administrative errors or communication problems)
- Failure to refer a patient to a specialist
- Cognitive bias or failing to deviate from an initial presumptive diagnosis
- Lack of adequate follow-up
When a doctor’s actions depart from the standard of care, it’s medical malpractice. When the malpractice results in the failure to diagnose an illness, the results can be devastating for the patient.
Understanding Misdiagnosis in Medical Malpractice Claims
Misdiagnoses occur when a doctor’s diagnosis is incorrect because they determine that a medical condition as something other than what it is. Common causes of misdiagnosis include the following:
- Inadequate patient examination or evaluation
- Ordering the wrong diagnostic tests or incomplete diagnostics
- Incorrectly interpreting test results
- Anchoring bias, or focusing on an anticipated diagnosis, which blinds the provider to other symptoms
- Prematurely closing a case by settling on an incorrect diagnosis and ending treatment
- Confirmation bias, or seeking evidence that confirms the diagnosis they favor
- Failure to communicate with other providers or to obtain complete patient records
- Rushing the evaluation process due to an overcrowded emergency room or over-booked appointment schedules
For example, a doctor could diagnose bronchitis in a patient presenting with a chronic cough and breathlessness, prescribing antibiotics, when the patient has lung cancer. In this example, not only does the patient receive medications they do not need, but the misdiagnoses may allow the cancer to advance to more serious stages that require more aggressive treatment. Cancer is curable in its earliest stages, but is almost always terminal when diagnosed in stage four.
How Can a Medical Malpractice Attorney Help?
The consequences of a misdiagnosis or a doctor’s failure to diagnose an illness can be severe, life-threatening, or even fatal. When a doctor violates their duty of care to treat their patient at the standard of care prescribed by the medical community, it’s medical malpractice. If this has occurred to you or a loved one, you have the right to demand financial accountability through a medical malpractice claim. Contact the Atlanta personal injury law firm Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC to learn more about your rights.