When you go to the doctor’s office, hospital, or clinic, you expect to be properly treated for your medical concerns. Unfortunately, mistakes can happen, and they can have a devastating effect on your physical health and even finances.
If you have been harmed due to a mistake, you may be able to hold these healthcare providers liable for your injuries. At Shrager Sachs & Blanco, we have helped many clients navigate the challenges of a medical malpractice claim, including those due to an error.
In this blog, we’ll look at what is medical error of omission, its implications, and what it means for you.
The Types of Medical Errors of Omission
According to a study reported by the National Library of Medicine, around 400,000 hospitalized patients experience some preventable harm every year. Adding to that, another estimated 200,000 patients die due to preventable medical errors.
When a healthcare provider neglects to perform a necessary action for the patient’s care, that is known as a medical error of omission. In these cases, the focus is on inaction. The healthcare providers should have done something but failed to do so, which led to patient harm.
There are several types of medical errors of omissions, but the most common ones include:
- Failure to administer medication: A patient might be prescribed a medication needed for their treatment plan. However, due to oversight or miscommunication, the medication is not given. As a result, that omission leads to the worsening of the patient’s condition.
- Missed diagnosis: If a healthcare provider fails to order necessary diagnostic tests based on the patient’s symptoms, it can result in a serious condition going undiagnosed and untreated.
- Lack of follow-up care: After a medical procedure or treatment, a healthcare provider failing to schedule follow-up appointments or monitor the patient’s recovery can lead to complications that could have been prevented with proper care.
Errors of omission can cause delayed diagnoses, untreated conditions, worsening of a patient’s health, and potentially preventable complications or deaths. This results from the absence of an action needed to prevent or treat a medical issue.
Is This Different from a Medical Error of Commission?
An error of commission happens when a healthcare provider takes an incorrect action. These individuals must have done something wrong. Some examples of these actions can include:
- Prescribing the wrong medication or dosage
- Performing surgery on the wrong site or patient
- Misinterpreting lab results and treating a patient for the wrong condition
- Administering a treatment that is contraindicated for a patient’s condition
Like errors of omission, these mistakes can cause direct harm to the patient through inappropriate actions.
What Are the Causes?
When visiting a doctor or other healthcare professional for treatment, you expect them to help with your medical concerns. However, medical errors of omission can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:
- Communication failures: Miscommunication or lack of communication between healthcare providers can lead to a lack of action taking place. For example, a doctor might assume a nurse administered medication when that did not happen.
- Inadequate staffing and workload pressures: Unfortunately, many healthcare facilities are understaffed. In some cases, the workers are overloaded with tasks with multiple patients. As a result, that can lead to higher rates of omissions. Sometimes, vital tasks may be overlooked because there is not enough time or resources to complete them all.
- Lack of knowledge or training: In some cases, healthcare providers are not aware of the necessary steps required for patient care, leading to omissions. If they have insufficient training or a lack of up-to-date knowledge about best practices, this can occur.
- Systemic issues: Any healthcare systems that lack proper protocols, checklists, or reminders can contribute to errors of omission. If there is no structured system to ensure all necessary steps are taken, these actions might be missed.
- Human error: In the end, human errors can cause medical errors of omission. While humans are prone to making mistakes, that should never happen in a healthcare environment where a patient’s health is at risk.
What Is the Impact?
These are not simple mistakes. Medical errors of omission can be devastating for patients. Patients rely on their healthcare providers to provide necessary care. When they fail to do so, the results can lead to prolonged illness, increased suffering, and, in some cases, death.
Additionally, these can lead to long-term complications that could have been prevented with timely and proper intervention.
Medical errors of omission can result in medical malpractice claims when a healthcare provider’s negligence harms a patient. In these cases, the error occurs when a provider fails to take necessary action.
For a malpractice claim to be successful, patients must show that:
- The healthcare provider breached their duty of care
- Directly causing the patient’s harm
- The patient suffered damages as a result
Proving an error of omission can be difficult because the harm stems from inaction, which may not be immediately apparent.
Medical errors can cause serious harm to patients. If you have been affected by this error or another type of medical malpractice, you may be able to take legal action.
A medical malpractice attorney can help you discover your options.
