When you seek medical care in New Jersey, you expect it to be uneventful. However, diagnostic errors can occur and you can be left with damages. Diagnostic errors account for many medical malpractice lawsuits.
What are diagnostic errors?
Diagnostic errors are mistakes made by doctors or other health care professionals. Patients want answers when they have a condition and need a diagnosis or treatment. However, most medical malpractice lawsuits are filed as a result of diagnostic errors. Those errors can include a wrong diagnosis, a delayed diagnosis, or missing it altogether, leading to the patient suffering harm.
Why do diagnostic errors happen?
Doctors and other health care professionals need to use their cognitive skills when making a diagnosis on a patient. Unfortunately, just like with people in any other profession, mistakes can be made. Doctors and other health care professionals should be aware of potential cognitive errors as they can adversely affect patients. If a patient is misdiagnosed or their condition is missed altogether, it can lead to serious harm. Their condition can become exacerbated. In the worst cases, the patient can even die if they don’t receive the appropriate treatment.
Failure to communicate is a huge problem
Another reason behind medical malpractice claims is that some health care practitioners fail to communicate with patients. If a patient is not properly informed of a potentially adverse event or a change in their treatment, it can cause irreparable harm and even death depending on the situation.
Doctors should not only communicate with patients but with other medical staff as well. Keeping everyone in the loop about health care whether it involves surgery, use of equipment, change in medication or anything else is important. If there’s a failure to communicate, it can lead to huge problems that could have otherwise been avoided.