A study conducted by researchers at John Hopkins University School of Medicine reveals that the most dangerous and costly mistakes made by doctors are diagnostic errors. According to the study, more than 160,000 people die in the United States each year because of physician misdiagnosis.

A diagnostic error can hamper the treatment of a patient’s condition and can cause serious injury or even death.

The research team examined more than 350,000 paid-out malpractice claims which had occurred between 1986 through 2010. They obtained the information from the National Practitioner Data Bank. The majority of the claims paid outX—28.6 percent—were due to misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose on the part of physicians. These claims typically resulted in extreme harm to the patient.

These claims were also the highest paid out claims and accounted for 35 percent of the total amount of medical malpractice claims paid. The payout of diagnostic error claims totaled almost $40 billion.

There were 69 percent of outpatient diagnostic error claims and 31 inpatient claims. There were more deaths that occurred for the inpatient claims.

The majority of diagnostic errors analyzed in the study were classified as failed diagnosis, with misdiagnosis errors coming in second. Errors involving neurological diagnosis were the most common.

The head of the research team, Dr. David E. Newman-Toker, an associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University, estimates that diagnostic errors occur in almost 15 percent of patients on their initial visit to a doctor for a new medical issue.

Dr. Newman-Toker said of his team’s findings, “Overall, diagnostic errors have been under appreciated and under-recognized because they’re difficult to measure and keep track of owing to the frequent gap between the time the error occurs and when it’s detected. These are frequent problems that have played second fiddle to medical and surgical errors, which are evident more immediately.”

If you have suffered permanent disabilities or illness due to a diagnostic error, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to discuss your legal options.

A recent study, conducted by researchers at Yale University Medical School of Medicine, concluded that despite the astronomical costs being spent for digital imaging mammograms, this new medical technology may be no more effective in detecting breast cancer than previous methods.

The study analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Medicare database. The research team looked at two groups of women, age 66 years of age or older, who had no history of breast cancer over two separate two-year periods. The first group was comprised of 137,150 women who had been tested between 2001 and 2002. The second group was 133,097 women between the years 2008 to 2009.

In the first group, only 2 percent of the women were given mammograms using digital imaging technology and less than 4 percent were tested using computer-aided detection methods. In the second group, those numbers jumped to 30 percent and 33 percent, respectively. The amount billed to Medicare for the two groups increased sharply. The cost of mammography screenings for the first group was $666 million. The cost of the second group was $962 million.

Although digital imaging and computer-aided detection was used more frequently, and at a greater expense, the study found no difference in rates of cancer detection.

The research team urged more research be done to determine what benefit, if any, is had by this new medical technology. In the report, the team wrote, “Our enthusiasm for new technologies should not replace strong, consistent evidence that the benefits of the new technology outweigh the harms in a clinically important way.”

In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a recommendation that it was no longer necessary for women who were in their forties, and who were not at a high risk for breast cancer, to receive routine mammograms. This was a contradiction of what had previously been recommended. However, there continues to be much debate on who should be screened, at what frequency, and what technology should be used.

If you have suffered permanent disabilities or illness because of a doctor’s failure to diagnose, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to discuss your legal options.

Medical errors that result in death inside a hospital are oftentimes caused by the neglect of healthcare professionals. According to CNN, medical errors kill more than 250,000 people every year in the U.S., which by some estimates could be “the third leading cause of death.” Examples of these types of medical malpractice include treating the wrong patient, accidentally leaving surgical tools inside a patient’s body, misplacing patient records, and waiting too long in the emergency room.

However, one such disturbing trend of failure in American hospitals is the number of patients who die from sepsis every year. In fact, the CDC reports that between 28 and 50 percent of those who get sepsis end up dying from the illness.

According to the American Thoracic Society, nearly half of all deaths in U.S. hospitals are sepsis-related, with sepsis also accounting for close to 22 percent of all hospital charges. Vincent Liu, M.D., of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, notes how “improved care for sepsis patients of all severity levels and in all hospital settings could result in many future lives saved.”

Sepsis is not an infection or a disease, but an illness that arises from an infection. Once the infection enters the bloodstream, it can spread rapidly through the body, and often result in the loss of muscle function, limbs, or organ failure. Despite several medical advances meant to curb the rate of infection and spread of disease, sepsis continues to be an unexpectedly severe issue.

Several causes of sepsis include surgical site infections, catheter-related urinary tract infections, and infections of the lungs or skin. Those more susceptible to sepsis include the elderly, infants and children, those with weakened immune systems, and those suffering from a physical trauma or severe burn. Symptoms of sepsis include:

• Fever,
• Chills,
• Rapid breathing and heart rate,
• Rash,
• Confusion, and
• Disorientation.

Early detection and treatment of sepsis can prevent serious bodily failure and death. However, noted by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, it can be difficult to diagnose as many of the sepsis symptoms “mimic other conditions, making sepsis hard to diagnose in its early stages.”

If you suffered from sepsis while in a hospital, or had a loved one die as a result of sepsis while in the hospital, you may be eligible for compensation. Do not go through it alone. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to discuss your case today.