These alarming statistics are further reinforced by a new study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM)published in September, 2015, which predicts that: “most people will experience at least one diagnostic error — an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis — in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences.”
The IOM report includes several examples where misdiagnosis occurred. A doctor mistook a blood clot in the lungs of a 33-year old woman for an asthma attack, leading to her death. An urgent care clinician misread an X-ray and diagnosed a 55-year old man with an upper respiratory infection instead of pneumonia. He died as a result. Doctors at a trauma center decided not to perform a CT scan on a 21-year old stabbing victim and missed a knife wound penetrating several inches into his skull and brain. A newborn baby suffered preventable brain damage when doctors failed to test for high levels of a chemical in his blood that had turned his skin yellow from head to toe.
What does this say about the current level of patient care in the United States? It says that providers who are in a position to make a diagnosis for a patient, along with the patients and their caretakers or family, need to pay more attention to what is going on. It says that we patients are tolerating a healthcare system where we too often do not experience full disclosure from our clinicians. It is says that our system does not encourage collaboration and communication between healthcare clinicians and patients. It tells us that us that misdiagnosis is raising the cost of care for all of us. It is says that each of us will face a potentially life threatening situation over the course of our healthcare that could be addressed and reversed if we pay attention.
We live with a system that is ill-designed to support the diagnostic process because our clinicians are limited by the time they are allowed to spend with each patient. As a result, some do not always follow up with tests and procedures that they have ordered.