Patients and their families in the greater Ashland and Huntington areas often sue their medical providers for negligence for several common reasons.
For example, patients may face a poor medical outcome after a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.
Errors in diagnosis often mean a patient loses valuable time to successfully treat their actual condition while they pursue options that do not solve their problems. In some cases, the wrong treatment injures them or makes their condition worse.
According to medical providers associated with a major research university, misdiagnosis frequently happens for three reasons:
- Poor or uninformed judgment on the part of the provider.
- Miscommunications or lack of communication between the providers and patients or internally between providers or other medical staff.
- Incomplete or incorrect documentation of medical records.
Poor medical outcomes also happen because a provider makes technical mistakes during a procedure. Medication errors, including mistakes related to administering anesthesia, also frequently end in medical malpractice claims.
It is the doctor’s responsibility to prevent medical malpractice
Patients can and should do their part to make sure that there are no misunderstandings with their doctors. They should be sure to provide a complete and accurate medical history and answer their providers’ questions correctly.
They should also follow instructions and speak up if they do not understand a step in their treatment or if they have concerns about it.
Greenup County residents also should feel free to seek out a second opinion from a different provider if they suspect that something is not quite right about their doctor’s diagnosis.
Ultimately, it is the doctor who is responsible for diagnoses and treatment. If they fall short in this responsibility, then patients or their families may be able to recover compensation for their losses.