If you have suffered a severe medical event in New York, once you reach the doors of the emergency room, you should be able to let the health care providers take charge. Hopefully, you have the ability to answer questions as they seek the signs that lead to the identification of your health problem. Even if you are not able to communicate, they should be able to run tests that help them discover the issue. Unfortunately, according to the medical journal Diagnosis, a recent study indicates that missed or incorrect diagnoses of some health problems occur more frequently than people may believe.
After years of medical school and training, physicians should have a good foundation for making diagnoses, and in many cases, you can rest easily knowing that the rate of error is relatively low – only 0.6 to 12 percent. When it comes to neurological health problems, though, researchers have discovered that the problem is much more significant. Some of the missed diagnoses evaluated by the study included the following:
- Stroke
- Aneurysm
- Intracranial hemorrhage
- Guillan-Barre syndrome
- Bacterial meningitis
- Mollaret’s meningitis
As much as one-third of the time, these types of problems go undiagnosed. So why are doctors overlooking the signs of neurological crises? Researchers believe one of the main reasons is a gap in the knowledge base of emergency department workers, which may stem from a lack of education. Medical professionals hope to improve the quality of emergency care by raising awareness and promoting strategies for information sharing among staff working in these departments. This article has been provided for your education, but it should not be interpreted as legal advice.
