Study Reveals Alarming Rates of Misdiagnoses in Emergency Rooms

Over 130 million people visit an emergency room on average each year. Each one of them is looking for quality care in their time of desperate need. However, a recent study reveals alarming rates of misdiagnoses in emergency rooms, leading to unnecessary illness and injury. Sometimes, patients even pass away from these medical mistakes.

When you go to the ER, you’re depending on the doctors and nurses to be at their best and provide the care you need to heal. When they fail to live up to the required standard of care, you may have grounds to pursue a medical malpractice claim against them with the help of a Philadelphia hospital negligence lawyer.

How Often Do Diagnostic Errors Happen in the ER?

According to the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHQR), of the 130 million ER patients seen and treated each year, as many as 7.4 million of them are misdiagnosed. This means about 5.7% of those who seek emergency care end up getting sicker or dying. Patients may suffer an allergic reaction, a condition may get much worse, or they could require corrective surgery.

When we look closer to home, the average number of visits to a Pennsylvania ER is about 37,250 per year, according to the PA Department of Health. If you apply the percentages found in the study, citizens of the Commonwealth suffered:

• Misdiagnosis: 2,123 patients (5.7%)
• Adverse event: 745 patients (2%)
• Serious harm: 112 patients (0.3%)

While doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers are trained for high-pressure situations, there are many factors that can contribute to a misdiagnosis or overlooked condition. Regardless of why an error happened, you deserve to know the cause, who is responsible, and how to seek compensation for the harm it caused you.

Top 5 Missed Medical Conditions in Emergency Rooms

The top five misdiagnoses in emergency rooms include:

• Stroke
• Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Aortic aneurysm
• Spinal cord compression or injury
• Venous thromboembolism

Together, these illnesses count for 39% of misdiagnosis errors, with strokes being missed about 17% of the time. Providers may also fail to diagnose cancer, brain injuries, lung punctures, and gastrointestinal problems.

Why Do Misdiagnoses Happen in Emergency Rooms?

In some instances, you may not even discover you’ve been the victim of a medical error like a misdiagnosis. The provider could fix the problem before it affects you. However, many serious conditions either result from or are made worse when a healthcare practitioner fails to see the symptoms.

There are many reasons why a medical provider could fail to diagnose you correctly, including:

• Lack of training
• Pressure from treating an overload of patients
• Understaffing
• Fatigue from long shifts
• Unusual symptoms
• Unconscious bias
• Patient isn’t in the usual category for a condition
• Substandard hospital administration

A number of different people and entities could be responsible for your injury or illness after a misdiagnosis. Your Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney will work to identify them all and file insurance claims and / or lawsuits to recover financial relief for you.

Taking Action When You Have Been Harmed by an ER Misdiagnosis

It can be challenging to understand what to do when you have been hurt by a misdiagnosis in the ER. You are suffering and must focus on getting better, but you still need to know who is responsible. Individual practitioners may be to blame, but in many cases, the problem can be traced to the actions of hospital administrators. If the culture of a facility is not focused on providing patients with the best care, those patients will suffer.

Your first course of action is to concentrate on your health. When you have recovered or are stable, you should contact a strong legal advocate who can begin investigating the situation on your behalf. They will walk you through your options and help you manage the paperwork involved in filing an insurance claim.

Your attorney can gather evidence showing how you were harmed and why you deserve compensation. They will negotiate with the insurance company for you and help you review any settlement offers they make. If the responsible party or parties do not agree to a fair amount, your medical negligence lawyer can take them to court.

What Could Your ER Misdiagnosis Claim Be Worth?

You may have medical insurance to cover the costs of your illness or injury that sent you to the ER in the first place. It makes sense that you can just have that coverage pay for whatever additional care you need after a misdiagnosis in the ER. However, you would not have needed more treatment if the at-fault party hadn’t made a preventable error.

You deserve to request every penny of the financial burden their negligence caused you. You can also seek repayment for the non-economic losses you faced, including your pain and suffering. Your medical malpractice attorney can help you calculate the value of your claim, which will include expenses such as:

• All medical bills
• Emotional distress
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Lost wages and benefits
• Mental anguish
• Paralysis and / or disability
• Rehabilitation and therapy costs
• Specialist fees
• Travel for medical care

Keep in mind that every claim is unique. However, the average verdict for a Pennsylvania medical malpractice case averages between $500,000 and $5 million. Medical malpractice insurance policies often have a payout limit per claim. If your expenses exceed this limit, you likely need to go to court to get what you deserve. Doctors and hospitals will rarely admit any fault. Their insurance companies will fight back, making it harder to get the financial relief you need.

Get Help After a Misdiagnosis in the ER Today

It’s important to get started as soon as possible after you’ve been hurt or made sick by a negligent misdiagnosis in a Pennsylvania emergency room. Evidence can disappear, and details can be forgotten, making it more difficult to hold those at fault accountable for their actions. Hospital negligence claims can be challenging to win since doctors will not testify against one another.

The laws around these cases are also very complex, so you need guidance and representation from a skilled medical malpractice firm. At Lopez McHugh, LLP, we are dedicated to your health and well-being. Contact us today for a free initial consultation to learn more about how we can help.