Failure to Diagnose - A Commonly Seen Form of Medical Malpractice

In the United States, failure to diagnose any illness or medical condition is a type of medical malpractice that is commonly seen. There can be devastating consequences for a patient when a doctor fails to diagnose and provides treatment is a timely manner. To know how many people have died because of a misdiagnosis is hard to do however every year tens of thousands of Americans die because of medical mistakes that could have been prevented.

Did Your Doctor Fail to Diagnose Cancer?

There can be a delay in treatment, the wrong treatment given or none at all if cancer is misdiagnosed. Cancer is an illness that needs to be treated early because any delays can cause damage that cannot be reversed. Unfortunately, there are cases when treatment is give when an individual does not have an illness. Even these cases can cause irreversible damage.

Commonly seen cancers that resulted in a wrongly diagnose case include:

• Breast


• Colon


• Cervical


• Lung


• Prostate

If you have suffered damages because your doctor failed to diagnose your cancer or you were mistakenly diagnosed with cancer, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a professional attorney for a free evaluation.

Other Types of Diagnosis the is often Wrong

Cancer is not the only condition that is often involved in missed diagnose cases. Others include:

• Heart attacks


• Stroke


• Diabetes


• Meningitis


• Blood clots


• Others

Some factors that may cause a doctor to be involved in a mistaken diagnosis are:

• Not listening to the patient


• Not recognizing symptoms


• Misinterpreting symptoms


• Failing to perform required tests


• Misinterpreting lab results

Physicians can be held legally accountable if their negligence harms their patient.

Patient Rights for Diagnosis Malpractice

If you were a victim of a negligent in diagnosis, you have some legal rights and may be able to recover some compensation from medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of earning capability and more. Contact a professional attorney to find out if you are eligible to some compensation. Contact a medical malpractice attorney for a free evaluation.

Statutes of limitations do apply in these types of cases so it is important to file a claim within these time limits. These time restraints vary in every state however, it is usually one to three years from the time of the injury. Your malpractice attorney is aware of these laws and they will work in a timely fashion to get your claim heard. Contact a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible and they will advise you of your legal options.

David Austin is an Attorney focused on complex injury cases. You can learn more about Failure to Diagnose at his website. http://www.Burke-Eisner.com

Malpractice Attorney Shawn Bugbee confession

Atlanta lawyer admits extreme legal malpractice. It agrees with the ~ $ 14,000 in fees paid are refunded to him. Of course he has never returned, instead of the charges and accuse him beats me. The State Bar notes that he committed malpractice and punishes him by a "secret link"! This should protect the public!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpgrhTFtiww&hl=en

Lawsuits From Unseen Patients

There is only one thing worse that receiving notice of a medical malpractice claim being filed against you - being served a claim when you never saw or treated the patient!

You can thank history for this anomaly. The basis of vicarious liability dates back to the feudal times of "masters and servants". It basically holds the "master" liable for the actions of the "servants". It is similar to the "deep pocket" strategy of attorneys. Since the servant seldom had the capability to compensate the victim, the master's pockets were deeper and better able to provide compensation.

There are numerous occasions where this principle of vicarious liability can come into play:

• You could be held liable for the actions of an employee within your organization.


• You could be held liable for the actions of a contractual partner within your practice or group.


• You could be held liable for the actions of an ostensible partner - a situation where there is no written contract, but the relationship is perceived to be a partnership.


• You could be held liable for the actions of a medical provider that simply rents space within your facility.

This concept of vicarious liability also extends beyond medical malpractice. As an employer, you could find yourself liable for the actions of one co-worker against another. If an employee is injured by another employee, the employer could be held vicariously responsible for the co-worker's actions, rather than the co-worker directly.

Another unseen patient situation could arise from an informal consult. A simple discussion with another doctor over lunch about the treatment of patient could be considered an informal consult. In a malpractice lawsuit, such informal consults are treated equally with formal consults. Even such casual conversations, likely to surface during discovery motions by a plaintiff's attorney, can create a doctor-patient relationship and duty to the patient.

Claims resulting from unseen patients are not that unusual. And they are not limited to vicarious liability and informal consults. Consider the treatment of your patients for dangerous communicable diseases. If a patient under your treatment infects an unknown person, they could sue you and win - if you fail to advise and counsel your patient on the seriousness of their condition and how to avoid infecting others. As one California court stated, "Such precautions are not taken to protect the health of the patient, whose well-being has already been compromised, such precautions are taken to safeguard the health of others."

At this point in the article, I should remind the readers that I am not an attorney and am not providing legal advice. The information is primarily based on my experiences within the realm of medical malpractice liability insurance.

That being said, there are some common-sense guidelines to help protect yourself from lawsuits of this nature:

• Maintain, and periodically update, your practice's Policies & Procedures Manual, as well as your Employee Manual.


• Maintain detailed records on all formal and informal education undertaken by members of your practice, group, clinic or hospital.


• Maintain detailed employee records of all disciplinary warnings and resolutions.


• Exercise due diligence in hiring employees and entering into real or ostensible partnerships. Think of yourself as an underwriter determining the level of risk.


• Exercise similar due diligence in renting space to another provider within your facility.


• Conduct regular, full-staff meetings to reinforce behavioral patterns and operational procedures within your organization.


• Be wary of any informal or casual conversations about another physician's patient.


• Document and keep a file on all such casual conversations in the same manner you would document a patient visit.


• Issue specific guidelines related to the treatment of patients with dangerous communicable diseases, follow such guidelines to the letter, and document them in the patient file.

The threat and scope of potential litigation against doctors is growing. From the reality of today's economic turmoil to the loss of health insurance by hundreds of thousands of individuals and the growing utilization of non-physician professionals, lawyers are looking at the medical industry as fertile ground for lawsuits. Therefore it is critical that every organization audit and assess its operations from the viewpoint of the patients - both those you see and those you may not see.

J Michael Rosenthal, ARM - President and CEO, RGI Insurance Services

Mike Rosenthal is an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and CEO of RGI Insurance Services. RGI Insurance Services provides all types of insurance for doctors and medical groups such as medical malpractice, workers compensation and group benefits as well as risk management services, human resource services and OSHA compliance services.

Secrets Lawyers Want to Keep From You When Committing Legal Malpractice

    Unfortunately a small percentage of any type of profession whether legal, medical or otherwise commit professional malpractice. So what secrets does your attorney want to conceal from you while committing professional negligence.

            Missing Deadlines - A negligent attorney will either not have a proper calendaring system or will procrastinate until the last minute and may frequently miss a statute of limitations or filing deadline. Calendaring errors are one of the leading causes of attorney malpractice claims. A negligent lawyer may try and keep this information from you or provide you with misinformation regarding these issues. It is important that when you interview a lawyer you get detailed information about how the attorney's office monitors all calendaring activities and whether or not they have had prior claims of attorney malpractice and the outcome of each case.

            Lack of Competence or Experience - An overly zealous attorney may agree to take a case where there is a potential of a large fee without possessing the necessary knowledge or experience. Make sure that before you hire an attorney that you conduct a thorough interview and determine how many cases like yours the attorney has handled and what type of a result the lawyer obtained in each case.

            Taking on Too Many Cases - An attorney who has a workload that they currently cannot manage is a recipe for a malpractice action. Does your attorney return your calls, are tasks done on a timely basis, is follow up done and reported to you, are you satisfied with the communications from your attorney. If you are constantly dissatisfied with the services your lawyer is providing to you it might be time to look for another lawyer. 

            If you feel your attorney has committed malpractice in the handling of your claim you need to speak with an experienced lawyer immediately.

Attorney Richard Hastings, for the past two and one half decades, has been helping injured clients and families collect millions of dollars in cases ranging from motor vehicle accidents to wrongful death, to medical malpractice. He is the founder of Selectcounsel, LLC, a free service that helps you find one of the best lawyers in your area and is the author of the books "How To Find A Great Lawyer" and "Understanding And Improving The Value Of Your Personal Injury Case."

Selectcounsel, LLC is a FREE national service that helps people with serious personal injury and medical malpractice cases find one of the best lawyers in their area to represent them. The lawyers we recommend are independently rated by attorneys and judges as being among the very best in their field of practice. Visit us at http://selectcounsel.com/ to see how we can help you find one of the best lawyers for your case.