When experiencing unfamiliar and uncomfortable symptoms, you look to your health care provider to help you understand what is happening to you. However, medical researchers found that approximately 795,000 patients “continue to die or become permanently disabled each year” in the United States due to a misdiagnosis or a wrong diagnosis. Health care providers throughout the country are misdiagnosing patients. As a result, the patient receives the wrong treatment or delayed treatment, and the consequences are detrimental.
Why do misdiagnoses happen?
Every medical condition comes with a variety of symptoms, some more drastic than others. Dizziness is one of the symptoms of dehydration, which is common and easily treatable. But it is also a sign that a person is having a stroke. A health care provider would need to conduct a full medical exam to adequately diagnose a stroke. Here are the reasons a health care provider might not give their patient the necessary and complete medical attention:
- Overconfidence
- Insufficient experience
- Lack of time with the patient
- Hospital understaffing
- Fatigue
- Failure to follow up with the patient
Because of these, a health care provider fails to perform the diagnostic tests any other reasonable medical professional would do to identify the actual cause of the symptoms. A misdiagnosis happens when a health care provider is negligent and reckless. They failed to give you the standard of medical care they promised to provide when taking you on as a patient.
Every patient has a right to competent and quality health care
As a patient, you look to your health care provider and trust in them because of their experience and professional training. You do not expect them to misdiagnose you. You may have a medical malpractice claim if you have suffered damages or your condition worsened because of a misdiagnosis.
