Misdiagnosis Leads to Death Every 9 Minutes
September 19, 2018
A new statistic has been released that shows every nine minutes a person in a hospital across the United States dies due to a delayed or an incorrect medical diagnosis. Diagnosing an injury or illness is very difficult, even with today’s technology, research, training and education of the medical professionals handling your situation. If you believe that your doctor has misdiagnosed your injury or illness it is time to speak to an experienced Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorney.
Patient Safety Authority is Taking a Stand
The Patient Safety Authority has decided to take a stand against this statistic in an effort to improve patient safety in hospitals across the country. The organization has joined the Society to Improve Diagnosis with 40 other organizations. All of these organizations are part of the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis.
The Patient Safety Authority is taking part in an initiative known as the ACT for Better Diagnosis. ACT is short for Accurate, Communicated, and Timely. The goal of the coalition is to spread awareness and better practices to patients, health professionals, clinicians and health systems to ensure that every diagnosis is accurate, communicated, and timely.
The coalition hopes to find solutions that increase and improve safety, quality, diagnostic accuracy and ensures the best outcome possible for the patient. The Center of Excellence for Improving Diagnosis was founded by the Patient Safety Authority in an effort to achieve these goals and more.
What Makes Diagnosis so Difficult?
Not all actions by doctors will be due to negligence, especially when it comes to misdiagnosis. You might be wondering what makes diagnosis so difficult. For starters, with more than 10,000 diseases and 5,000 laboratory tests available, doctors could have difficulty determining what exactly is plaguing a patient even with all of the tests and research available today. Symptoms only offer doctors minor clues as to what might be wrong. It is possible that any symptom of the patient could have multiple explanations as to what the underlying problem is.
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury or illness due to misdiagnosis of a current condition it’s important that you protect your rights immediately. Call the experienced team at Goodrich and Geist in Pittsburgh, PA to discuss your situation. Contact the office today to schedule an initial consultation.
The articles on this blog are for informative purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.
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