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Medical Malpractice

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Mistakes in the Healthcare System

Kansas City families have seen and heard their fair share of headlines concerning health care these days. As the debates rage across the country, many families are left wondering what the next step will be, and how the changes in the health care laws will ultimately affect their families.

In the middle of all of these conversations about the future of health care reform in this country, questions over the quality of healthcare are beginning to bubble to the surface as well. Talk shows and magazine articles spell out horror stories of patients who suffer outrageous medical mistakes, debilitating side effects, and even unnecessary death at the hands of error prone medical professionals.

Again, families are left to wonder how anecdotal evidence and stories will affect their families. A recent study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine by Dr. Saul Weaver casts a little more light on the state of medical errors and health care quality in this country.

The study utilized undercover patients whose primary job was to visit doctor's offices. Each participant presented complaints to the physicians, average in their nature, with clues that should have prompted the doctors to seek further information or ordered further tests. For example, a patient complaining of asthma also mentioned that the attacks had gotten worse since a recent job loss. In the ideal situation, the doctor would have investigated further to see if the patients' financial woes were preventing him or her from obtaining the proper prescriptions to treat the ailment.

Adequate follow-up care by physicians occurred only 20 percent of the time. In other words, in only one out of five undercover tests were doctors seeking the answers and formulating a plan to help the patient receive the care needed. Additionally, only half of the doctor's office visits included probing questions that would have lead to the real reasons behind the problems.

Many would see the results of this study as inexcusable. In fact, some would characterize this as a dreadful example of the broken state of the health care system, where simple conversations between doctors and patients are regulated by quality control measures and money saving criteria handed down from insurance companies and others who do not understand the needs of patients.

Doctors and healthcare professionals alike can prevent unnecessary mistakes and failures to diagnose illnesses during critical time windows when they provide good healthcare. Many serious diseases, including cancer traumatic brain injuries, and birth injuries can have much more positive outcomes if the symptoms are noticed in a timely fashion, proper testing is completed, and an early diagnosis allows the patient to begin treatment while the illness is still in its early stages.

If you or a loved one have been the victim of inadequate medical care, the Kansas City medical malpractice lawyers at Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys offer a free initial consultation. Call 888348-2616 for more information. You can also download your copy of The Truth About Medical Malpractice Claims for further information.

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