Misdiagnosis vs. Missed Diagnosis

When you visit a doctor or other medical professional, it’s normal to assume that they know what they’re doing and will make you better, not worse. Unfortunately, mistakes happen, and this isn’t always the case. In these situations, you could have a legal claim for compensation. Two common types of malpractice are misdiagnosis vs. missed diagnosis. They’re often confused with each other, so it’s important to define misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis.

What is a misdiagnosis?

A misdiagnosis happens when a doctor or healthcare provider determines you have one illness or injury when it is actually something different. This error means you might get treatment for the wrong condition or no treatment at all. Not getting the right help can lead to your condition getting worse, and getting the wrong type of treatment can do the same or even cause more problems and side effects on top of the condition that you actually have.

Example: mistaking a heart attack for indigestion

One example of a misdiagnosis is mistaking a heart attack for indigestion. If someone shows up to the emergency room with severe chest pain and nausea, a doctor might decide that these symptoms are due to heartburn, especially if the patient presents as someone who wouldn’t typically be at risk for a heart attack. If proper testing and treatment are skipped, there could be very serious consequences for the patient.

What is a missed diagnosis? (failure to diagnose/delayed diagnosis)

A missed diagnosis is when no one figures out what illness or injury you have, even though they should have. Sometimes, signs get overlooked, or early test results are dismissed as not serious. Other times, patients aren’t sent to the right specialists, or needed scans and assessments aren’t ordered, letting a condition get worse.

Example: ignored signs of stroke

A patient could come into the hospital with dizziness, confusion, or weakness. If the provider doesn’t order the right tests and sends the patient home thinking it’s nothing, the patient could face another, life-threatening stroke because they didn’t get the diagnosis and treatment they needed.

Both a misdiagnosis and a missed diagnosis can have severe effects for a patient, leading to long-term health issues and sometimes even death.

How do these errors happen?

When a doctor misdiagnoses or misses a serious illness, there are often simple reasons behind it. Several steps can go wrong at the first visit or even after tests are done. Here are some of the most common mistakes that can lead to these problems:

Incomplete history or exam

Sometimes a provider will rush through learning your medical history or cut short a full examination. This can cause them to miss important information that would have helped them with a diagnosis.

Not ordering the right tests and ignoring red flags

Certain patient complaints need specific tests right away, like blood work or X-rays. If a doctor skips recommended tests or standard protocols, a diagnosis might get missed or delayed. Sometimes doctors may even ignore warning signs because they seem uncommon or don’t match the more straightforward explanation the doctor hopes for.

Failure to review or follow up with patients

Sometimes doctors or office staff don’t keep track of test results after they are sent out. Abnormal labs that come back after you leave the office might slip through cracks. This means the patient won’t get the help they need, leading to potentially severe outcomes.

Poor communication and handoffs between providers

Healthcare often involves sharing a patient’s care between different professionals, especially in larger practices or hospitals. If those handoffs are sloppy, doctors might miss crucial details or fail to communicate next steps to coworkers. Losing track of follow-up appointments or forgetting to send a patient to a needed specialist creates significant health risks.

If a doctor or hospital makes these mistakes and you’re harmed as a result, you might have a medical malpractice claim against them.

When is a misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis malpractice, and when is it just a mistake?

Medicine is complex, and doctors are only human. Sometimes a problem could have several possible explanations, so a diagnosis can be difficult. Not every missed or delayed diagnosis means a doctor broke the rules. To show that what happened actually rises to medical malpractice, the law requires proof of more than just an error or poor outcome. You must prove the following four elements to have a successful case:

Duty of care

The first step of proving malpractice is showing evidence that the medical professional owed you a duty of care. This means you have a doctor-patient relationship with the medical professional, and they have a duty to treat you like a reasonably skilled, careful clinician would. This is a pretty simple element to prove – usually, all you need to do is just prove that you had a doctor-patient relationship, which occurs when you make an appointment and show up to see them.

Breach of duty

A breach happens when the doctor does not meet the expected level of care. This has to be more than just a poor outcome – it has to be a violation of the standard of care another professional would have used. For example, if national guidelines or well-established practices demand a brain scan when head injury symptoms appear, and your doctor ignores them, this could be considered a breach of their duty. In most cases, you will need expert testimony to support this claim.

Causation

Proving malpractice takes more than just showing that the doctor made mistakes others wouldn’t have made. This mistake must have actually caused your poor outcome. This means showing that if the proper steps had been followed immediately, your outcome would probably be different. Maybe your injury could have been much less severe, or your recovery would have been shorter and better. If a doctor was negligent and made a really obvious mistake, but it didn’t cause you harm, you won’t have a successful malpractice case.

Damages

Last, to be eligible for compensation, you have to document damages from the malpractice. This can be extra medical bills, lost earnings (present or future), pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.

Not finding an unusual or easily missed condition right away isn’t necessarily malpractice if most doctors might have missed it, too. Distinguishing between malpractice and a mistake isn’t always as easy as it seems, even if the outcome you’ve experienced is very bad. The most important step you can take is to speak with a medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible.

We have been handling these delicate malpractice cases for over forty years and have recovered compensation for injured patients when a doctor’s care has fallen below acceptable standards. If you want to discuss what happened and determine if you have a malpractice claim, contact Merkel & Cocke, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation.