A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that doctors and medical centers often fail to inform patients of clinically significant test results. The test included a review of over 5000 randomly selected patients from a variety of clinics and medical centers. The findings show “the rate of apparent failures to inform or todocument informing the patient was 7.1%.”
Failure to diagnose an illness or medical condition has often been determined to be medical negligence. I expect to see a growing number of medical malpractice cases based on failure to properly inform a patient of clinically significant results. These clinics must understand that if a patient does not hear from their doctor after a test or blood work is done, he or she will assume that everything was normal. Any patient who fails to seek or obtain medically necessary treatment because he or she was unaware that it was needed, should have a case for malpractice. If you or a loved one believes that you have been harmed by a failure to be informed of clinically significant test results, please contact our office for a free consultation.
Special thanks to thepoptort.com for bringing this article to my attention.