The Doctors Company, a medical malpractice insurer, conducted a study of 1,180 medical malpractice claims and found that the most common issues were delayed, inaccurate or failed diagnoses. These issues were found in nearly 40 percent of the claims in the study.
The study also found that:
- More than 50 percent of the claims detailed severe injuries against internal medicine specialists
- 56 percent of the claims involved failure to order necessary testing or delaying testing
- More than 33 percent of claims were for injuries that occurred at hospitals
When prepping for the study, The Doctors Company and practicing doctors worked together to analyze cases in order to determine the top three factors contributing to patients’ injuries:
- 25 percent of cases involved patients not complying with treatment plans
- 33 percent of cases involved patient assessment issues
- 21 percent of cases involved communication issues between patients, family members and doctors
Researchers concluded that there are a number of reasons why doctors do not properly treat and diagnose.
A primary reason is that the average doctor diagnoses approximately 400 diseases annually and once in a while encounters a rare illness he or she has never treated before. Therefore, patient injuries may be attributed to an error in judgment, not a lack of clinical skills.
Hopefully the revelations from this study will assist medical professionals in finding weaknesses in patient treatment systems so they can be corrected, says David B. Troxel, co-author of the study and medical director of The Doctors Company.
If you have been misdiagnosed by your physician or other medical professional, contact the skilled Knoxville medical malpractice attorneys at Greg Coleman Law. Your claim will be reviewed at no cost by a personal injury attorney at our firm, and if you are eligible to file a lawsuit, our attorneys will aggressively pursue maximum compensation.
Call us today at (865) 247-0080 or fill out our Free Case Evaluation form.
