Communication Failures among Health Care Professionals May Constitute Medical Malpractice

As reported last month by MSNBC, a communication breakdown between a doctor and a testing laboratory resulted in a one-year delayed cancer diagnosis for a woman in Virginia Beach, Virginia. When she didn't hear anything from her gynecologist after an annual exam and mammogram, Peggy Kidwell assumed she was in good health. However, when she went back the next year for her exam, her doctor did not have record of her mammogram screening results from the prior check-up. When the tests were finally located (on the desk of another doctor), it was discovered that Ms. Kidwell had undiagnosed breast cancer.

By the time Ms. Kidwell underwent treatment, the cancer had spread to her chest wall. She had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and eventually a mastectomy. Ms. Kidwell filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in a case that was eventually settled and sealed, but we may conjecture that her claim was at least partially based on her doctor's failure to follow up on the mammogram by reaching out to her or to the lab.

Examples of Communication Failures in the Health Care Profession

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, communication problems are the most common cause of medical errors, as miscommunication can result in many different types of errors and involve any and all members of a health care team. The following scenarios all represent failures in communication:

Miscommunication within an office practice

Failure to pass information along to health care providers working different shifts

Lack of communication between primary care physicians and emergency room personnel

Lack of communication between physicians and ancillary services, such as pharmacies, laboratories, and imaging centers

Lack of communication between patient services in hospitals and nursing homes

Poorly documented or lost information on laboratory results, diagnostic testing, or medication information

Failure to provide patients with adequate information or resources to help in the recovery process

When critical information is not properly communicated among health care providers, a patient is vulnerable to misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, medication errors, and even surgical mistakes, ranging from scheduling conflicts to operating on a wrong body part. In a recent study published by the American College of Radiology (ACR), researchers found that "test result communication failures account for an increasing proportion of medical malpractice awards."

Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyers

If you suspect that you or a loved one received inferior medical treatment and suffered harm due to a communication error, mistake, or oversight made by a doctor, nurse, clinician, hospital, or other health care provider, contact Paulsen & Armitage, LLC. We are experienced medical malpractice attorneys based in Denver, Colorado.