Medical conditions that are improperly diagnosed can negatively affect a patient’s life and even be the reason for the development of additional diseases and ailments. Thinking about medical malpractice, misdiagnosis often isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Doing surgery on the wrong part of the body or leaving objects in a person’s body during a procedure tends to be linked to medical malpractice more frequently than a misdiagnosis. While these instances are extreme and they actually happen often, so does misdiagnosis. In fact, medical misdiagnosis is responsible for the deaths of as high as 80,000 people every year in the country.

Annually, there are approximately 12 million people that have their health conditions misdiagnosed. Across the board, women, and minorities tend to get the wrong prognosis most often. These groups are 30% more likely to be given incorrect information about their health. Diagnostic errors and incorrect evaluations by medical professionals can have devastating and grave outcomes for patients. Misdiagnosis can lead to a medical malpractice suit and while all specialties can experience this problem, it is the leading cause of suits in the majority of sub-specialties like emergency medicine and radiology, for example. Due to the high frequency of visits that emergency care and primary care get along with many patients coming to these medical facilities early on in their disease progression, improper diagnosis happens very often.

If your condition was not properly diagnosed and you live in the greater Jacksonville, Florida area, then you may be able to file your own medical malpractice suit. To learn more about how to proceed with a Jacksonville medical malpractice lawsuit, the Jacksonville medical malpractice attorneys at Sheftall Law can provide you with the legal guidance necessary to answer your questions and assemble a strong case on your behalf. When you work with the Florida medical malpractice lawyers at the Law Office of Sheftall & Associates, you will have your unique case examined and then a detailed strategy will be devised to ensure that you are best positioned to win your case for the most money possible.

Was Your Doctor Negligent with your Diagnosis?

If you were misdiagnosed and your doctor took all of the right steps and actions to come to a final result, then it could be harder to prove that they were medically negligent. There are some diseases that are unknown or that have little known about them and they may appear to be other ailments, for example, which makes these health issues difficult to address. However, if your doctor did not take the time to get to know you and get an understanding of your medical background they will have a much harder time getting to the correct prognosis.

Doctors know a great deal about the human body and how it functions, and specialists are proficient in very precise medical niches but these medical professionals do not know everything about every person’s body and how it expresses disease. Therefore it is critically important that doctors take the time necessary to discuss with their patients what symptoms and issues they are experiencing. Additionally, they should be asking targetted questions to extract as much clarifying information as possible. Also, looking over previous medical records and taking into account family history is necessary to increase the ability of the doctor to come to the right diagnosis.

When there is doubt or questions that linger about a condition that a patient suffers, doctors can consult with their peers for feedback. Speaking to colleagues and other specialists is essential to gather as much information and expertise as possible. Accessing research studies as well as professional informational resources is another avenue to explore. Utilizing all available means to come to what is believed to be the most logical result will help doctors make the right decisions more often. But if a doctor is unwilling to do the work necessary to get to the right conclusions about a patient’s medical condition and they do not correctly diagnose the patient, this can be considered negligence and may result in the patient’s ability to file a suit for compensation.

Is Anything Being Done to Address Misdiagnoses?

There are some organizations like the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine that are actively working to find ways to address the problems of improper diagnosis in medicine. There is research that exists and looks into what approaches work with regard to reducing medical diagnosis errors. These studies showed that the following actions can be beneficial to improving the rate of correct diagnosis:

• Having families, patients, and medical professionals actively working together throughout the process of finding the correct diagnosis.
• Continuing medical education.
• Using health information technology correctly and competently.
• Helping medical professionals learn from medical mistakes.
• Finding ways to improve the environments that medical providers work in so they can be supported when making a diagnosis.
• Holding medical professionals accountable for mistakes.
• Creating a reporting and tracking system when mistakes are made.
• Increases funds that support further research examining diagnostics.

Speak with a Jacksonville Medical Malpractice Attorney Today

According to the research, medical professionals overwhelmingly do right by their patients and correctly diagnose illness and disease 90% of the time. However, for those that fall victim to a prognosis that does not address their health issues and it happened because their provider was irresponsible, then an advanced and strategic legal response is necessary. Patients that go in to see their doctors expect that they will be given correct information and treatment to help them recover from or manage their health issues. Even though the medical system and the professional providers that work in it are not perfect, and mistakes are made, when negligence plays a role in the reason for misdiagnosis in Jacksonville, a patient who was harmed by this recklessness has rights and can take legal action. 

The Jacksonville personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Sheftall & Associates understand the trauma and serious life-altering consequences that result when a misdiagnosis takes place. If you would like to file a Florida medical malpractice claim for the harm you had to endure after a medical misdiagnosis, call the Law Offices of Sheftall & Associates to schedule a free consultation at ‌(904)‌ ‌638-7712‌.