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At a time when the emergency room -- the origin of a disproportionate amount of medical liability claims -- welcomes ever more visitors, hospitals are addressing the problems that lead to missed diagnoses. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Diagnostic errors account for 37% to 55% of " medical liabilities.
Hospitals are putting initiatives in motion to aid the flow of information from patient to doctor to colleague. One such initiative places doctors and nurses through special simulations and exercises, through which the main point is to improve communication between each other. Nurse-doctor huddles are encouraged to create face-to-face information-sharing environments. This is in contrast to electronic data, which can slip by a team without a similarly intimate discussion setting. Additionally, patients are encouraged to share as much about themselves as possible, and to ask as many questions as they would like answered.
Another important reform is the "trigger" system, which checks for abnormalities in five specific signs to determine which patients should be seen and treated fastest. Yet a separate pilot project moves patients immediately into beds to be treated simultaneously by a doctor and nurse, who would both simultaneously be privy to vital information.
Other projects take advantage of mistaken diagnostic statistics. "Because heart attacks are among the most commonly missed diagnoses, insurers are" calling for a non-presumptive policy, where emergency administrators do not write off young people, who are less likely to suffer heart disease. The WSJ additionally cites a study that says, "strokes are also often missed in younger patients, too."
Finally, hospitals are adapting "time-outs": periods of time after all work has been done on a patient, just in case something unexpected comes up.
If these proactive reforms are widely adopted, the risk of trips to the emergency room may very well be lessened.
If you would like more information about how medical malpractice cases work in the state of New York, I encourage you to explore my educational medical malpractice website. If you have legal questions, I urge you to pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com to answer your questions. That's what I do every day. I welcome your call.
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