Diagnosing patients is a basic job responsibility for a physician. Medical doctors have to determine what causes an individual’s symptoms if they want to arrange for the best treatment plan possible. Doctors have access to numerous resources that help them accurately and quickly diagnose patients.
They can send biological samples to a lab to check for cancer or the presence of specific pathogens. They can order imaging tests that can pinpoint the location of a tumor. They can even refer a patient out to a specialist who can conduct in-depth testing.
Unfortunately, many doctors do not make use of those diagnostic tools and may fail to diagnose a patient in a timely and accurate manner. The following factors commonly contribute to the likelihood of a doctor making a diagnostic mistake.
Too much pressure on their time
Most doctors are employees. They have to keep the hospital or corporate medical practice that hired them happy. Often, their job performance depends not on how accurately they diagnose their patients but instead on meeting certain metrics. Doctors may see dozens of patients every day, which may leave them with only a few seconds to listen to each individual patient. The unfortunate result of that pressure is that they do not get the full picture of a patient’s recent medical experiences and could make diagnostic mistakes.
Personal bias
One of the issues that can affect a doctor’s accuracy during diagnosis is how much they believe a patient’s self-reported symptoms. They may judge a patient based on personal characteristics. Doctors often have internal biases that may affect the care they provide to certain groups of people, including women and patients from different races. Internal bias may lead to a doctor ignoring or downplaying symptoms that could have given them real insight into a patient’s medical needs.
Professional burnout
Working long shifts day after day, year after year can take a toll on a professional’s mental health. Burnout is a concern in almost any profession, including medicine. Physicians may become so mentally exhausted by their jobs that they simply reach for the simplest explanation instead of finding the most accurate one. For example, instead of ruling out lung cancer, a doctor may summarily diagnose a patient with a chest cold when they present with a cough and shortness of breath. Proper diagnostic procedures generally require that doctors either affirm the underlying cause of symptoms or rule out other causes before reaching a diagnosis.
Diagnostic errors are a very serious and common form of medical malpractice. Filing a lawsuit can potentially help affected patients and grieving families recover medical costs and lost income created by a patient not receiving treatment in a timely fashion.
