Study Links Most Med Mal Deaths to Inaccurate Diagnosis

How the Study Was Conducted
Researchers from John Hopkins School of Medicine analyzed more than 55,000 claims in an insurance database to identify the conditions or diseases for which the most serious harm related to misdiagnosis occurred. Claims for diagnostic errors isolated from the database accounted for 28.7% of all U.S. medical malpractice claims. Diseases were categorized into clinically sensible groupings. Researchers specifically analyzed claims for the “Big Three” (cancer, vascular events, and infections), which were determined by previous research to account for most morbidity and mortality attributable to diagnostic errors.
What Researchers Found
Diagnostic errors that cause caused severe harm (serious injury, permanent disability, or death) were scored from 6 to 9 on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Severity of Injury Scale. Researchers also reviewed underlying disease states in malpractice claims based on diagnostic error to identify patterns of misdiagnosis. They found that the “Big Three” accounted for 74.1% of the most serious diagnostic errors in the following proportions:
- 8% — Cancer
- 8% — Vascular events
- 5% — Infection
The most frequently found diseases in these three categories, respectively, were lung cancer, stroke, and sepsis. Overall, these serious cases of diagnostic error resulted in $1.8 billion in medical malpractice payouts during a period of ten years. This study confirmed that misdiagnosis is the most common and catastrophic type of medical error resulting in medical malpractice claims.
What Kind of Harm Can Misdiagnosis Cause?
Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can harm a patient in several different ways, including:
- Exposing the patient to more aggressive treatment than would have been needed if the condition had been diagnosed earlier
- Performing unnecessary surgical procedures that may result in scarring or disfigurement
- Needlessly exposing the patient to harmful courses of treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation
- Increased likelihood of complications or death
Recent Blog Posts
Categories
- Auto Insurance Claims
- Bicycle Accident
- Birth Injury
- Brain Injury
- Burn Injury
- Bus Accidents
- Car Accidents
- Commercial Vehicle Accidents
- Dangerous Road Accident
- Distracted Driving Accident
- Dog Bite
- Drunk Driving Accident
- Freeway Accidents
- Head-On Car Crash
- Hit-and-Run Accident
- Interesting
- Intersection Accidents
- Law Firm News
- Medical Malpractice
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Nursing Home Abuse
- Pedestrian Accident
- Personal Injury
- Pickup Truck Accident
- Premises Liability
- Rear-End Accidents
- Rideshare Accidents
- Rollover Accidents
- Safe Driving
- Segway Accident
- Slip-and-Fall Accidents
- Speeding Accident
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Swimming Pool Accident
- Teen and Young Drivers
- Truck Accident
- Wrongful Death
Backed by our
No Fee Promise
Case Results
$3,300,000
Wrongful Death
- case details are confidential.
$2,400,000
Degloving Injury
from defective power winch.
$2,125,000
Car Accident
resulting in neck and head injury.