Home > Blog > What Is Failure to Diagnose?

According to an article in Fox News, failure to diagnose is currently the number one reason that people are suing for malpractice. This might be difficult for some people to understand. After all, there are certain instances when diseases and disorders come on as total surprises and when it would be impossible for a physician to diagnose them before they happened. This is not what these cases are about.

To understand how failure to diagnose is oftentimes cause to sue for malpractice, you first have to put the work of a doctor into an accurate context. A physician is a scientist. There is a specific methodology by which they make diagnoses and, because of that, their individual adherence to that methodology can be assessed objectively. If they failed to adhere to proper standards of practice in how they reached a diagnosis – or failed to reach a diagnosis – they may be liable for damages.

Many of the people who sue for failure to diagnose are suing because they ended up suffering grievously as a result of the failed diagnosis. Some of the people suing are actually suing due to the loss of a family member who lost their life because a proper diagnosis was not made in time to prevent a deadly disease from running its course.

The important thing to keep in mind about a failure to diagnose lawsuit is that it has to be a verifiable instance of a doctor failing in their duties. If you deliberately hid symptoms, for instance, you would not be able to file a lawsuit, as you didn’t give the doctor all of the information they needed, in all likelihood.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/19/failure-to-diagnose-is-no-1-reason-for-suing-doctors/