Profession
Diagnostic errors big part of medical liability claims
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 23, 2006
Diagnostic errors played a role in 59% of medical liability claims in which patients alleged they were harmed by missed or late diagnoses, according to a study in the Oct. 3 Annals of Internal Medicine.
Cancer was the most commonly missed diagnosis in the study, which reviewed 307 closed claims between 1984 and 2004 from four medical liability insurance companies.
Researchers identified the most common "breakdowns" in the diagnosis process and discovered that 55%of errors were associated with a failure to order an appropriate test. In more than 40% of cases, doctors did not follow up on test results or did not get adequate information from the patient, while 37% of cases involved incorrectly interpreted test results.
Patients contributed to medical errors in 46% of cases.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/10/23/prbf1023.htm.
