A report in the BMJ Quality and Safety
Journal states, each year in the U.S. approximately 12 million adults
or 1 out of 20 patients who seek outpatient medical care, are
misdiagnosed in a way that could cause severe harm.
A new study from the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) published in September 2015,
confirms these statistics. Doctors
apparently are not as careful as they should be. I know this for a
fact and fortunately, the error the doctor made was not critical. I
had a severe gall bladder attack and all the doctor could think was
heart problems.
When I had the second severe gall
bladder attack, I went to another hospital and the two doctors had it
correctly diagnosed within minutes. They gave me medicine to ease
the pain and the following morning, I was given a scan, which showed
that they were correct. A month later, I was operated on and my gall
bladder removed.
Other patients are often not as lucky
and the doctor misdiagnosis results in death.
What does this say about the current
level of patient care in the United States? #1. It says that we
patients are tolerating a healthcare system where we too often do not
experience full disclosure from our clinicians.
#2. It says that our system does not
encourage collaboration and communication between healthcare
clinicians and patients.
#3. It tells us that us that
misdiagnosis is raising the cost of care for all of us.
#4. It says that each of us will face
a potentially life threatening situation over the course of our
healthcare that could be addressed and reversed if we pay attention.
#5. It says that providers who are in
a position to make a diagnosis for a patient, along with the patients
and their caretakers or family, need to pay more attention to what is
going on.
#6. It tells us that we live with a
system that is ill designed to support the diagnostic process because
our clinicians are limited by the time they are allowed to spend with
each patient.
#7. It tells us that some doctors do
not always follow-up with tests and procedures that they have
ordered. Even if they follow-up, they are often not provided with
adequate feedback about the accuracy of a diagnosis.
#8. It says ours is a culture of care
that discourages transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors,
which impedes attempts to correct these problems.
Diagnostic errors are often incredibly
harmful to patients, as they may lead to:
- delays in treatment,
- lack of treatment,
- inappropriate, or unnecessary treatment,
These can have physical, psychological,
and financial consequences.
Because of the magnitude of the
misdiagnosis disease, I urge you to read the full post by Nancy Finn here
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