Not all instances of adverse medical outcomes are due to medical malpractice, but when a medical provider fails to diagnose an illness, injury, or medical condition due to negligence, oversight, or error, the case may rise to the level of medical malpractice if the doctor or medical facility breached the required standard of care. A Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer examines the evidence in a case to determine whether the medical provider violated their duty of care by failing to diagnose a patient’s illness.
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Standard of Care In Failure to Diagnose Cases
What Causes Failure to Diagnose?
For a patient to receive the proper treatment for a medical condition, their medical provider must first make an accurate and timely diagnosis. Unfortunately, failure to diagnose is a common category of medical malpractice. Frequent causes of a medical provider’s failure to diagnose include the following:
- Misdiagnosing the true condition as another condition with similar symptoms
- Spending inadequate time with the patient
- Failing to order the appropriate diagnostic tests
- Incorrectly interpreting diagnostic test results
- Failing to obtain a complete patient history
- Lack of adequate communication between care facilities, resulting in incomplete medical records
- Implicit bias, or a doctor who presumes from the beginning of their examination that a patient’s condition is something specific and fails to consider other diagnoses
- Failing to refer to a specialist
When a medical provider fails to accurately diagnose a patient, the patient doesn’t receive prompt treatment and may not achieve the most favorable outcome. In some cases, this could mean more advanced disease, more aggressive treatment requirements, worsened medical outcome, or wrongful death.
What Is the Standard of Care for Medical Diagnosis?
All curative or beneficial medical treatments follow a correct, timely diagnosis. Doctors and other medical providers must uphold their duty of care to patients. A doctor or other medical provider has a duty to treat patients at the standard of care accepted as appropriate by the medical community.
When a doctor, medical staff member, or medical facility breaches their duty of care to an individual who has established themselves as the provider’s patient, and the breach of duty directly causes them an injury with damages, it’s actionable medical malpractice.
Recovering Compensation for Medical Malpractice After a Provider Breaches the Standard of Care
Medical malpractice damages vary depending on the severity of the injury or worsened medical outcome the patient experiences as a result of malpractice, such as failure to diagnose. Common damages awarded in medical malpractice cases include the following:
- Reimbursement for medical expenses
- Future medical expenses related to the injury or a worsened medical outcome
- Out-of-pocket costs
- Lost earnings
- Anticipated future income loss for further treatment, necessary procedures, and recovery time
- Reduced future earning ability due to disability
- Compensation for pain and suffering
In some cases, a patient may recover compensation for catastrophic injury, such as loss of limb, loss of vision, hearing loss, permanent scarring, or compensation for diminished quality of life. If a loved one died due to a doctor’s failure to diagnose, a close family member can recover compensation and justice for their lost loved one through a medical malpractice wrongful-death claim.
How Can an Arizona Medical Malpractice Lawyer Help My Case?
An experienced medical malpractice lawyer investigates all aspects of the medical malpractice to document evidence of the provider’s violation of the standard of care. Then, they make a careful calculation of the injury victim’s damages to maximize the victim’s financial recovery, allowing the victim to focus on their physical recovery.