Not Informed of an Adverse Medical Test Result?

20 Jul Not Informed of an Adverse Medical Test Result?

A disturbing and harmful trend has started occurring with greater frequency lately. The New York Times reports a trend in medical negligence – not notifying a patient of an adverse medical report. This trend is very alarming as patients incorrectly assume “no news is good news.”
A study was performed to test and analyze doctor’s communications with patients regarding adverse or abnormal test results. The study?s results were very interesting: seven percent of patients are not getting important information concerning their health.

One major problem involves a general lack of clear rules in doctor?s offices regarding managing test results. Some offices forget to ensure that a patient?s specific doctor signed off on the test results. Others do not take simple precautions and follow simple rules to guarantee a patient receives her medical records. Medical offices must realize that informing patients that ?no news is bad news? is not the correct information – patients need a doctor?s clearance to be assured of no bad news.

Another factor hindering the receiving of personal information involves getting the results back from the lab. 25 percent of mistakes found in the study involve problems with retrieving lab results. This, mixed with failing to notify patients of bad news, results an alarming number of medical mistakes. In fact, in two of the largest academic medical centers studied, 23 percent of abnormal results were never mentioned to patients.

This news is alarming for patients as no news can now mean bad news turning into worse news. Patients need the comfort of knowing that doctors will alert them of any bad news after check-ups. Patients should not have to follow up and seek the medical results of tests; doctors have the duty of presenting the information and explaining the results. Doctors who complain about the number of medical malpractice cases should consider why these cases keep arising – and do something beneficial about it.