Improving Diagnoses and Fighting Medical Malpractice

A recent report from the Institute of Medicine (part of the National Academy of Sciences) has shown that as many as 12 million American adults receive wrong or late medical diagnoses each year, and also that this has happened to most American adults at least once in their lives. The report has exposed some critical problems in the health care system, as well as highlighted the obvious risks of late and incorrect diagnoses, which can have life-changing and even deadly consequences for patients.

Diagnoses are complex, collaborative, and influence all of a patient’s subsequent health care decisions, and 12 million affected Americans per year is a rate that absolutely must be brought down. Improving the accuracy of diagnoses will require widespread commitment and collaboration among health care organizations and professionals, patients and their loved ones, policy-makers, and researchers, and Improving Diagnosis in Health Care offers some tips for contributing to these changes in health care value and security:

– Develop more effective teamwork in diagnostic procedures among health care professionals, patients, and their families
– Enhance education of the diagnostic process for health care professionals
– Ensure that health information technologies sustain both patients and their health care staff throughout diagnostic processes
– “Expand and deploy” a variety of approaches to identifying, reducing, and learning from diagnostic errors in clinical practice
– Create work systems and cultures which support improvements in diagnostic performance
– Develop reporting environments and medical liability systems which facilitate “enhanced diagnoses” by learning from diagnostic errors
– Design payment and care delivery environments which support diagnostic processes
– Provide devoted research funding for the diagnostic process and to reduce diagnostic errors

Unfortunately, as many as 440,000 people per year lose their lives in U.S. hospitals due to medical malpractice, and these preventable errors are America’s third-leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer. From missed and late diagnoses to incorrect medications, undetected tumors, and excessive or insufficient doses, these errors are all too common in our health care system and affect millions of people each year.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to medical malpractice, you deserve full compensation for your losses. Contact 844 See Mike for a free consultation. We are a Chicago-based injury law firm representing individuals (and their families) who have suffered an injury in an accident. We will handle your case quickly and advise you every step of the way, and we will not hesitate to go to trial for you.

Lastly, 844 See Mike is not paid attorneys’ fees unless we win your case. Our no-fee promise is that simple. You have nothing to risk when you hire us – only the opportunity to seek justice.