Disagreeable Patients Are More Likely to Be Misdiagnosed
Being injured or ill is never an enjoyable experience, but when tempers flare between patients and doctors, it can make an already difficult situation even worse and perhaps more dangerous. Misdiagnosis is defined as a patient receiving an incorrect diagnosis for his or her condition and is an unfortunately common occurrence.
Doctors take an oath to do no harm to their patients. If a patient is exceedingly opinionated or otherwise difficult on a personal level, it may cause the doctor to neglect this duty by trying to rush through a patient’s treatment simply to distance the patient. Obviously, this isn’t good for the doctor nor the patient.
Treating Frustrating Patients
Incorrect diagnoses are common in emergency room situations, where doctors need to act swiftly and sometimes don’t have the necessary time to consider all possible options for treatment. However, two new studies published by the BMJ Quality and Safety journal indicate doctors are much more likely to make mistakes when dealing with difficult patients.
The first study showed that in situations involving a complex condition, doctors made 42% more mistakes when dealing with difficult patients and 6% more errors with more straightforward or simple conditions. The second study confirmed that diagnostic accuracy was 20% lower for frustrating patients. The doctors who were studied were also more likely to recall their patients’ attitudes and behaviors than their medical issues.
No matter how frustrating a patient may be, he or she is entitled to thorough, competent medical care. Doctors must treat all of their patients equally and do everything in their power to ensure they correctly identify and treat their conditions.
Misdiagnosis and Malpractice
Misdiagnoses and delayed diagnoses are common causes of medical malpractice claims. Physicians are required to treat their patients accurately and in a timely manner. Some ailments can be difficult to identify, and some mimic the symptoms of other more serious conditions. Even a skilled, experienced doctor can make understandable mistakes from time to time.
However, in situations where the doctor rushes to finish dealing with a difficult or hostile patient, it can result in a misdiagnosis, which may in turn lead to a malpractice suit. To prove medical malpractice, a plaintiff must prove:
There was a doctor-patient relationship between the parties.
The doctor did not provide reasonable or competent treatment of the patient’s condition, meaning the doctor was negligent in his or her care.
The doctor’s negligence caused injury to the patient.
If a doctor rushes to a diagnosis, it can result in treating symptoms rather than the cause of a condition, and those mistakes can have severe impacts on patients. When doctors are treating a frustrating or combative patient, they are more likely to make mistakes. However, a difficult patient is no excuse for doctors not to exercise reasonable care and act in the full extent of their capabilities in treating a patient.
In any medical situation, the best thing for all parties involved is to stay calm. As a patient, you may become frustrated if you believe your condition is the result of something different than what your doctor tells you. However, unless you are a licensed medical professional, the best thing you can do is to trust medical advice. If you are in extreme pain, the temptation to lash out may be hard to suppress, but the best thing to do is let the doctor do his or her job and try to remain as calm as possible.
Doctors should understand that suffering patients may be frustrating to handle. Medical professionals deal with some of the most demanding schedules and job conditions of any industry, and the psychological toll can be extreme. When tempers flare, it’s best to keep as level of a head as possible and provide the best, most thorough medical care possible.