Errors made during diagnosis more common, deadly

[Hum]

The term ?medical malpractice? often brings to mind errors made during surgery or the over-administration of prescription medications. However, a significant component of medical malpractice revolves around errors made during a patient?s diagnosis ? which ultimately happen a lot more often and can be much more dangerous.

After conducting an extensive analysis of 25 years of U.S. malpractice claim payouts, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., revealed diagnostic errors account for the largest fraction of claims and cause the most severe harm to patients overall. In terms of financial impact, these errors resulted in the highest total of penalty payouts ? amounting to $38.8 billion between 1986 and 2010.

A diagnostic error translates to a diagnosis that was missed, wrong or delayed, as discovered by further testing. These mistakes lead to injury either as a result of failure or delay to treat the condition ? or from incorrect treatment given for a mistaken diagnosis.

According to the study?s researchers, the impact and significance of diagnostic errors has been downplayed by experts, because these types of mistakes are much more difficult to pinpoint and define.

?There?s more uncertainty about diagnostic errors than there are about treatment errors,? lead study author Dr. David Newman-Toker, an associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told FoxNews.com. ?It?s reasonable to say no nurse should ever administer a tenfold dose of chemotherapy or a medication to a patient allergic to that medication. Those events are easier to keep track of and easier to measure.

?Diagnostic errors are not quite like that,? he continued. ??Instead of having a very specific time that?s documented ? with a diagnostic error, you don?t find out until later when someone is injured that it happened. That lag creates uncertainty, and that uncertainty (sparks ideas like) ?It wasn?t reasonable for someone to have diagnosed it at the time.? That?s where the debate starts.?

While Newman-Toker and his colleagues only examined diagnostic errors that rose to the level of malpractice payout, they estimate each year, between 80,000 and 160,000 U.S. patients suffer from potentially preventable injury or death related to medical misdiagnosis.

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[Original Poster]

happened to me...got misdiagnosised .... 3 days later i have a gash down my side and spent 5 days in the ICU the first 24 hours I was so critical they had to keep me on constant 24 hour watch ....all because they said I had gastroenteritis and no appendicitis... if he could do his job I would have been in and out of hosipital within two days rather then 14 days

[Growled Member]

An older neighbor of mine got a diagnosis of cancer and he even set up chemo treatments and all that and then decided to get a second opinion. Found he didn't have cancer at all but another condition.

[DocM]

With sometimes dozens of conditions sharing symptoms I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Things will get worse under Obamacare as diagnostic tests get rationed to fit the govt. spending guidelines. You can't add 40m people to a system with a shrinking practitioner base and limit diagnostic expenses and have it turn out well