Caveat Emptor: Beware when buying medical services
September 24, 2015 11:12 PM   Subscribe

Report: Doctors Are Screwing Up Diagnoses -- And Patients Should Speak Out The medical industry has know about diagnosis, treatment and prescription errors for decades but they continue to ignore the problem. All I can say is next trip to the hospital, make sure that you have a patient advocate with you, and don't blindly accept what you are told. Ask questions, be informed and participate in your healthcare.
posted by appleyar (1 comment total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This reads a bit too much like a personal blog post, sorry. -- goodnewsfortheinsane



 
I mean.... duh?

Diagnosis is seeing symptoms, doing some tests, and deciding which of a million (billion) different diseases it most likely is. Of course there's going to be screw ups. There frequently are. You might even say that misdiagnosis could be considered part of diagnosis since if someone doesn't respond to initial treatment that in itself might rule out the initial diagnosis.

Especially as most diseases present in very similar ways initially.

Especially especially as all members of the medical profession are being told do do everything faster (in Australia the government guideline is that all patients need to be seen, diagnosed, treated and out of an emergency department within 4 hours, this includes waiting for the doctor and waiting for tests to come back).

At my department it is reasonably common for someone to come in with generic symptoms, be treated for the most likely disease and then represent a few days later when what is actually going on has declared itself.

Our most common referral from a GP is someone who hasn't responded to the most obvious course of treatment and needs further investigation.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 11:23 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


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