Misdiagnosis Malpractice

Missed or delayed diagnoses are major causes of malpractice complaints. When a doctor mistakes one disease for another condition or, alternately, fails to recognize a condition, the patient could miss treatment that might have prevented serious harm or death. Misdiagnoses could also lead to the prescription of incorrect treatments that may do nothing, or could result in additional harm.

A recent study from Johns Hopkins found that misdiagnosing a condition is the leading type of physician error. It is estimated that nearly 20% of all patients are initially misdiagnosed. That means that approximately 12 million people per year are told they have one disease when they are actually suffering from something else.

Misdiagnosis can occur because patients do not always have the textbook list of symptoms. That is no excuse, as a good physician would know to look for other non-traditional symptoms. When doctors take the time to listen to their patients and ask for the correct testing, misdiagnosis is less likely.

The five most commonly misdiagnosed diseases or conditions are infections, tumors or masses inside the body, heart attacks, blood clots in the lung (pulmonary embolism), and heart disease.

The key to understanding cases of misdiagnosis is being able to show what the treating doctor did wrong and how a competent doctor should have gone about properly addressing the condition. If a reasonably skillful and competent doctor would not have made the same mistake under the same circumstances, then the treating doctor may be liable for medical malpractice.