Medical care providers are held to a higher standard than patients in terms of responsibility for injuries sustained in medical care facilities. While most people trust their physicians wholeheartedly, some doctors act negligently and cause harm to their patients. A misdiagnosis by a medical professional can lead to severe injuries. If you or a loved one were a victim of a medical misdiagnosis, reach out to a lawyer experienced with establishing liability in West Palm Beach misdiagnosis cases. Let an accomplished medical misdiagnosis lawyer fight for you.
Understanding Liability in a West Palm Beach Misdiagnosis Case
A doctor is required to provide a reasonable standard of care to their patients. When a physician fails to do something like ordering additional diagnostic tests necessary to diagnose a patient properly, that is a violation of the standard of care. A misdiagnosis case is classified by a medical professional who has enough information to diagnose and treat their patient properly or to send them to a specialist who is able to diagnose them and fails to do so. In other words, the medical professional had the right information but failed to do what was necessary to help the patient and properly diagnose them. Additionally, the patient may go on thinking nothing is wrong with them while there is a substantial delay between their initial visit and when they are finally diagnosed.
Overlooking Diagnoses
A doctor can also be at fault for not looking for the right issue because they are required to have a differential diagnosis. When a patient presents certain signs and symptoms, their doctor must consider all possibilities of what they could be suffering from.
Physicians should have a list of conditions that may exhibit the signs and symptoms that a patient is experiencing. While some doctors are able to identify the source of a patient’s complaint with minimal testing, many doctors must identify the worst condition and work their way down the list to rule certain things out. To do this, they may need to order specific diagnostic testing, blood work, and numerous labs to rule out whatever the patient does not have. When a physician fails to diagnose an individual, the patient should contact an attorney about establishing liability in West Palm Beach misdiagnosis cases.
Procedural and Prescription Errors
Liabilities do not change whether the case involves procedural errors, prescription errors, or misdiagnoses. A procedural error could involve a doctor failing to perform a procedure correctly within the standard of care. A prescription error could involve a doctor who does not fully understand what a patient is taking and subsequently fails to fill their prescription correctly or a doctor who writes a prescription that is lethal to a patient because of the combination of other drugs they take.
Liability is the same with all of these types of cases. There is a standard of care in place that medical professionals must abide by, and a violation of the standard of care could be grounds for a lawsuit. Call a knowledgeable lawyer today to learn more about liability in West Palm Beach misdiagnosis cases and to see if you qualify to pursue compensation from your doctor.
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