Malpractice Claims Help Prevent Future Mistakes
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal emphasizes what attorneys and civil justice advocates have known for years – medical malpractice cases improve patient safety.
Medical malpractice often arises out of a missed or delayed diagnosis. Before a patient can receive appropriate treatment, a physician must make a timely and accurate diagnosis. However, communication breakdowns can lead to diagnostic errors, and ultimately tragic results.
According to a patient-safety researcher, mistakes in diagnoses kill 40,000-80,000 hospitalized patients each year. Diagnostic mistakes often involve cancer, with breast cancer topping the list as the most commonly missed or delayed diagnosis.
The WSJ article cites three examples of medical malpractice that have “taught” medical professional about the dangers of faulty communication and delays and incorrect diagnoses:
“A doctor assumes a patient’s recurrent cough is a respiratory infection and doesn’t order a chest X-ray, missing a deadly lung cancer. A 40-year-old woman dies of a rare blood disease after her abnormal lab test falls through the cracks. A man dies from an obstructed bowel after different doctors treating him fail to share information about his acute abdominal pain.”
The article notes that these cases and others have led medical professionals to analyze what went wrong – for example did the error occurs because of inexperience, poor communication, or carelessness? Based on this analysis health care providers evaluate how to prevent mistakes in the future.
The bottom line – if you’ve been injured as a result of a medical error – filing a lawsuit may do more than provide you the compensation you deserve – it may actually improve patient safety and prevent the same error from occurring again.
For more information, or if you have been harmed by a medical mistake, contact the San Francisco attorneys at Bostwick & Peterson, LLP dedicated to helping those injured by medical negligence.
