You need a doctor to tell you why you feel sick or why you suddenly developed a rash, as their diagnosis is the only way for you to secure the treatment your condition requires. They can evaluate you using their education and order tests that can confirm the presence of specific bacteria or provide images of your musculature or skeleton.
Although you are completely dependent on a doctor to analyze your condition and reach a reasonable diagnosis, many times doctors fail during the diagnostic process. They might diagnose someone with the wrong condition or not diagnose them with anything at all.
How common are diagnostic mistakes in modern medicine?
Diagnostic errors happen every day
According to modern medical malpractice statistics, hundreds of thousands of diagnostic errors occur every single year. Many of those mistakes will lead to worse medical outcomes. Somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 people will die each year because the doctor diagnosed them with the wrong condition or didn’t diagnose them, so they couldn’t undergo treatment.
Patients turned away by a doctor or diagnosed with the wrong condition could undergo treatment that they don’t need and that will not help them, or they may not get the treatment that could save their life in a timely manner. Both patients negatively affected by delays and diagnosis and family members of those who died because of diagnostic errors may have grounds for medical malpractice claims against the physician or facility that provided inadequate diagnostic care.
Learning more about the most common forms of medical malpractice can help those hurt by medical professionals instead of being helped by them.
