Connecticut Medical Malpractice: When Patient Engagement Reduces Diagnostic Errors

Diagnostic errors occur when physicians fail to perform certain tests, misread reports, or fail to explore all avenues of illness. This could be considered Connecticut medical malpractice. But new research has shown that diagnostic errors are a serious patient concern as they could be the cause for up to 17% of adverse events.

This research included analyzing reports from 184 patients and found the following:

• Patient knowledge was ignored 92 times when patients or family members were ignored or disregarded in reports of clinical indications such as symptoms and changes in patient status.
  
  
• Disrespect of patients was considered a possible contributing factor in several diagnostic errors including belittling, mocking, and stereotyping.
  
  
• Failure to communicate ranging from ineffective communication styles to refusal to talk with patients and family members.
  
  
• Manipulation or deception was reported in 15 cases using fear to influence care decisions or patients who were misled or misinformed.

If you or a loved one were injured in a healthcare setting and question the level of care received, contact our firm immediately. Our Connecticut medical malpractice team is comprised of experienced medical and legal professions who will investigate your injury.