Every year, countless residents in Maryland undergo routine screenings as part of their preventive health care and some of these involve tests that must be read by radiologists, such as mammograms. Many other people must have tests conducted to investigate problems they are experiencing. These, too, often require radiologists to read results. The importance of a radiologist properly interpreting test images cannot be overstated.
Sadly, a paper published by the insurance company Coverys exposes a serious gap in radiologists’ accuracy according to Business Insurance. The paper reviewed a set of medical error claims and of those claims studied, it was found that radiologists were involved in more than any other specialty except for general practitioners. A test image was misread in eight out of every 10 claims involving a radiologist. To make matters worse, a person was either permanently injured or died in eight out of ten radiology errors reviewed.
These facts are highlighting a serious gap in safety for patients today. The report also focuses on recommendations to the medical community to improve patient safety by improving the accuracy of test result information. These include having checklists, multiple reviews of images and even peer review processes for reading images.
The report may be an important step toward providing better information to patients but it also highlights the need for patients to be proactive about their health care and to seek additional help when they believe the medical community may have failed this. This help may be found by talking with an attorney in Connecticut.
