Diagnostic Errors: The Most Common and Deadly Type of Medical Malpractice

Most medical malpractice incidents are the result of missed diagnosis or delayed diagnosis of a medical condition. In a study published in British Medical Journal of quality and safety, it was revealed that misdiagnosis is the cause of more than 28 percent of the paid medical malpractice claims. A total of 350,706 medical malpractice cases that were paid compensation were a result of medical misdiagnosis. 

The study showed that diagnostic errors caused more number of lawsuits, patient injury, and penalty payouts in last 25 years, outnumbering the cases of medication mistakes and surgical errors. It is interesting to note that 80,000 to 1, 60,000 people get injured or killed because of a diagnostic error.  This reaffirms the BMJ study findings that misdiagnosis is more likely to cause injury or death as compared to any other kind of medical malpractice. 

Another study conducted on the causes of medical malpractice shows that although we would like to believe that cases of objects being left inside the body during surgeries would be fairly uncommon, this is far from reality. More than 4,000 such cases where surgical instruments were left inside the body of the patient were reported in United States in the decade ending in 2010. Such cases are known as “never events” in legal terminology. 

In spite of the fact that incidents of medical misdiagnosis in Missouri are so rampant, they often go unrecognized because such cases are difficult to measure. These cases are also hard to monitor because of the time lapse between the mistake and its detection. Proving a case of medical negligence is a difficult task and misdiagnosis in itself may not provide sufficient grounds to file a lawsuit. 

Proving Negligence
The law does not automatically hold doctors responsible for not diagnosing a medical condition correctly. In a medical malpractice lawsuit, the plaintiff needs to prove three different points

1. A doctor patient relationship existed.
2. The doctor was negligent and did not provide care in a timely and appropriate manner.
3. The negligence caused harm to the victim.