Does Your Doctor Look at Test Results? June 21, 2011.
We are getting a lot of calls right now from people who are being diagnosed with advanced diseases, like cancer, some that are terminal that should have been diagnosed much sooner. We’ve seen cases where something abnormal is seen on an x-ray and even though written reports are being sent to the treating doctor(s) office nothing gets done about the abnormal findings.
The two most common reasons seem to be that the doctor never sees the report of the doctor assumes some one else is following up. Either way, it’s a failure to communicate.
The same thing happens even more commoly with laboratory resting results. For some reason, doctors don’t seem to either look at the results of tests they are ordering or don’t seem to have systems checks in their office to ensure that they are made aware of the results.
Often the abnormal result is not discovered by the patient until much later sometimes months or years later. If you or a loved one has been recently diagnosed with a condition that you believe should have been caught earlier, give The Mellino Law Firm a call at (440) 333-3800, we can help.