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  • Failure to Timely Diagnose

Errors Caused by Failure to Timely Diagnose • Help When You Need It Most

Seasoned medical malpractice attorneys who recognize medical errors resulting from failure to timely diagnose

Before treatment, a patient’s illness or injury must be diagnosed. While people often see their doctors to seek treatment for an obvious condition, many patients have medical complaints without knowing the specific problem. Even exhaustive testing cannot always reveal the cause of a patient’s condition. Sometimes, however, medical providers fail to follow appropriate diagnostic procedures, causing them to miss important facts and begin inappropriate treatment that has a severe adverse effect on their patients. Identifying and proving diagnostic failure requires an attorney with a detailed understanding of medical procedures and the technical knowledge to conduct thorough investigations into the events leading to patient injuries. The malpractice lawyers at Jack H. Olender & Associates, PC are dedicated to helping patients and their families prove these complex cases and pursue the full compensation that can help them move forward. The Olender law firm has the extra distinct advantage of employing a doctor/lawyer and nurse/lawyer to help us screen and prepare the case and point us in the right direction.

Many elements can represent a failure to timely diagnose

A timely and correct diagnosis is as important as any form of treatment in promoting the patient’s health. Yet many patients suffer because their doctors take shortcut diagnostic measures such as the following:

  • Failing to obtain an adequate medical history of the patient. This omission from a patient’s record can cause potentially harmful or deadly treatment by not revealing existing conditions, medication allergies or hereditary considerations.
  • Failing to sufficiently conduct appropriate tests and analysis to rule in or rule out any suspected causes for the patient’s complaints. Insufficient testing eliminates vital information that may be needed to diagnose and treat the correct condition.
  • Failing to timely diagnose a patient’s condition prevents treatment of cancer and other conditions early enough to help ensure a full recovery.
  • Failing to fully investigate a patient’s complaints and dismissing their concerns because of a reliance on obvious physical symptoms. Patients can pay a steep price for treatment delays or complete failure to treat.

Overconfidence can lead to physicians’ diagnostic failure. Medical science continues to advance at an impressive rate, including the introduction of automatic equipment and processes that yield accurate diagnostic results. There are many causes of diagnostic errors. But the American Journal of Medicine cited physician overconfidence as one disturbing reason for diagnostic errors. Studies showed that experienced physicians often used only a fraction of diagnostic resources available to them and rarely reviewed relevant information even when it flashed on a screen in front of them. Additional laboratory studies compared physician diagnoses with postmortem findings. The results showed that clinicians who reported complete certainty of their diagnoses actually displayed a 40 percent error rate in cases where an autopsy was performed.

Most patients seek out and benefit from experienced doctors. But patients need to take a proactive approach regarding their own diagnosis and treatment. Failure to diagnose may present grounds to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Asking a doctor if he or she has conducted all available tests may prevent adverse medical results — and a stressful legal process.

At Jack H. Olender & Associates, PC, we approach every case as a team. We combine our attorneys’ 200 years of malpractice and injury law experience to produce an indomitable resource for victims of avoidable tragedies.

Let our team help you

Contact us to see the difference our exceptional medical malpractice and catastrophic personal injury attorneys can make in your case and in your life. There is no risk in calling us. Our firm does not charge a consultation fee to meet with clients and assess their particular case. We work on a contingent (percentage) fee arrangement, so no legal fees are paid if money is not recovered on your behalf. We practice in District of Columbia and Maryland courts.

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