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DOCTOR ERRORS
Patient safety experts focus on diagnostic errors
March 10, 2009 – Medical doctor diagnostic errors (defined as diagnoses that are missed, wrong or delayed) represent a much larger source of preventable health problems and deaths than the more common targets of safety reform, like drug-prescribing errors, wrong-site surgeries and hospital-acquired infections.
Despite the trust patients put in their doctors and hospitals, diagnostic errors account for an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 hospital deaths per year, say Johns Hopkins patient safety experts in the March 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In the article, David Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D., and Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., also report that tort claims for diagnostic errors are nearly twice as common as claims for medication errors. They theorize that reducing the large volume of diagnostic errors will likely require a focus on larger “system” failures that affect medical practice overall, rather than just blaming individual doctors.
The Johns Hopkins team suggests that diagnostic errors might be reduced by systematically adopting tools, such as:
Small comfort for trusting patients
But whether the large volume of diagnostic errors that lead to thousands of preventable deaths are the fault of system failures or doctor negligence, the current situation doesn’t bode well for patients who trust their lives to today’s medical professionals.
With up to 80,000 hospital deaths per year attributed to medical misdiagnoses, good intentions and risky health systems won’t compensate grieving families without a good lawyer. To receive the fair and proper financial compensation you deserve, contact the personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg.
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. – We’re here for you . . .
When you put your trust in a doctor and that trust is betrayed through negligence or diagnostic error, a medical malpractice lawyer is your family’s best guardian.
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. is New York’s largest personal injury law firm. We represent medical malpractice victims and their family members in many states, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Weitz & Luxenberg’s attorneys have decades of experience defending victim’s rights in practice areas that include: accidents/general injury, dangerous drugs, medical malpractice, and environmental pollutants.
For a free evaluation of your case, please fill out the form on this page and send it to Weitz & Luxenberg. Know your rights. Get the financial compensation you and your family deserve. Don’t get stuck with medical bills or be deprived of lost income when the fault for the injury lies with a doctor or hospital.
see also:
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Hospital Malpractice: Failure to Diagnose When Child Swallows ToyChild almost dies after failure to diagnose. Get a free legal review
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Failure to diagnose result in your injury? Our lawyers can help.Weitz & Luxenberg medical malpractice lawyers provide help if you were injured by your doctor's failure to diagnose.
