Misdiagnosis is a common form of medical malpractice. In fact, almost 20 percent of patients say they have received a misdiagnosis at some point in their lives. Misdiagnoses can take a variety of forms, including misinterpreted lab results, a doctor’s failure to prescribe the correct treatment, a doctor treating a patient for the wrong illness, and more.
If you believe you have been a victim of misdiagnosis, it’s important to speak to a New York City medical malpractice lawyer )as soon as possible. There are time limits for filing a claim, so you shouldn’t delay speaking to an experienced lawyer.
**Doctors Have a Duty to Diagnose **
Any time a patient visits a doctor, the doctor has a legal duty to adhere to generally accepted medical standards and procedures. This means doctors should follow the generally accepted procedures and protocols with respect to identifying an illness, verifying the illness, and diagnosing it.
To do this, doctors will usually go through a multi-step process that includes talking with the patient about their family history, their own medical history, and their symptoms. Doctors will also conduct a physical example and order any diagnostic tests that can help identify the illness.
Missing any of these steps can result in a misdiagnosis. For example, if a doctor fails to ask about a patient’s family history, they might miss something important in the patient’s genetics, causing the doctor to overlook a potential disease. Similarly, if a doctor fails to order certain tests, they might misdiagnose the illness as something different.
In some cases, doctors misdiagnose a patient because they make assumptions about the types of conditions a patient might have based on the person’s gender or age. For example, the patient might be presenting with symptoms that indicate a type of cancer that usually only appears in older patients, but the doctor might dismiss those symptoms if the patient is a younger person. These types of assumptions can lead to a misdiagnosis that causes harm to the patient.
Common Reasons Why Doctors Misdiagnose Patients
There are numerous reasons why a doctor might misdiagnose a patient. Some of the more common reasons include the following:
Powered by KISS PR Brand Story Press Release Distribution )- Hosted by Qamar Zaman
Instagram Qamar Zaman Official )Qamar Zaman on Forbes )