According to a new report, most Americans will receive at least one wrong or delayed diagnosis at some point in their lives. Wrong or late diagnoses can have devastating consequences, and the report calls for urgent changes in the American healthcare system.
The report was issued by the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit non-governmental organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences.
Getting the right diagnosis is crucial to good healthcare, but diagnostic errors get too little attention, the report noted. To correct the problem, there needs to be better teamwork between all healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses, lab workers, and others, and the patient must also be part of the team. Complaints from patients need to be taken more seriously. Patients should also be encouraged to ask their doctors "Could it be something else?"
There are many reasons for a wrong or late diagnosis. Visits to the doctor are now shorter and rushed. Communication between patient and doctor and the doctor and others may be unclear. Lab and x-ray results may be misread or lost.
No one keeps a good count of diagnostic errors or how often they lead to serious problems, according to the report. One conservative estimate is that 5% of adults who seek outpatient care each year have been subjected to a diagnostic error. The passage of time can compound the problem of a delayed diagnosis. Diagnostic errors make up the leading reason for successful malpractice claims and are almost twice as likely as other claims to have resulted in a patient's death.
Often, when a second or third doctor makes the correct diagnosis, the original doctor or doctors are not informed of their error. This means that those doctors do not learn from their mistakes.
The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 1999 that stated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year die of preventable medical mistakes in hospitals. Since then, the healthcare system has been focused on helping reduce the number of medication errors and infections acquired in the hospital.
You can read the institute's report here.