Types of Hospital Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis is one of the leading causes of medical malpractice cases and often leads to devastating, even deadly consequences for patients. Doctors, surgeons and nurses are human and are subject to mistakes. However, when mistakes are the result of outright negligence or incompetence or could have been avoided with due care, patients have a right to compensation. Any direct negligent action by a doctor, nurse, surgeon or other medical personnel performing within the ambit of their duties eventually is the vicarious fault of the employer hospital.

Types of Misdiagnosis

Medical misdiagnosis can occur when a doctor's actions or omissions falls below the medical standard of care. For example, a physician may neglect to order the necessary tests or might misread the results of tests he does order. Additionally, doctors can fail to diagnosis certain conditions that require urgent medical follow up to save a patient's life. Misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose are especially horrific in cases of deadly diseases like cancer, where time is crucial to survival.

Failure to diagnose (False Negative)

The most common malpractice cases involve failure to diagnose. Of these cases, impending heart attacks and various types of cancers such as breast cancer and colon cancer are conditions most often overlooked by negligent physicians. Other non-urgent conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are also misdiagnosed as well. Even those these conditions may not be immediately life-threatening, they can eventually take a toll on a patient's health without proper medical intervention and can lead to other catastrophic conditions such as heart attacks and strokes. Failure to diagnose cases often arise from misread test results.

False Positive

A doctor may mistake a patient's condition for something else and start on an erroneous course of ordering wrong procedures and prescribing the wrong medications. All the while, the actual disease or condition progresses. As with a false negative, this type of mistake can also occur from misreading initial test results.

Equivocal Results

Equivocal results are inconclusive interpretations without a definitive diagnosis. These interpretations can lead to following a wrong course of action by the doctor, while any undetected conditions or diseases are allowed to progress without intervention.

Types of Misdiagnosed Conditions

The following are the most common types of misdiagnosed conditons and diseases:

• Heart disease
• Breast cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Cervical cancer
• Testicular cancer
• Lung cancer
• Strokes
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Kidney disease
• Appendicitis

Sometimes the misdiagnosis of these diseases result from errors in diagnostic testing, which, again, can lead to wrong treatment.

Talk to a Medical Malpractice Attorney

If you feel that you have been harmed because of a doctor's misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, you may have a case not only against the doctor but against the hospital as well. You should not have to shoulder the costs incurred from the medical malpractice. Consult with an experienced attorney to determine your rights in this case.