What are some examples of misdiagnosis?
Making the wrong diagnosis.
A typical example is when a patient who presents with chest pain is diagnosed with a relatively minor condition such as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD), when in fact the patient’s symptoms are caused by a more serious condition such as a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism and no steps are taken to diagnose or treat those conditions.
Missed diagnosis.
This typically occurs when the patient is certified as fit, when in fact he or she suffers from a medical condition that could have been diagnosed at the time of certification.
Delayed diagnosis.
This usually occurs when the medical practitioner fails to obtain a proper history or refer the patient for appropriate investigations to rule out a particular condition.
This occurs when the medical practitioner diagnoses and treats only one condition, when the patient’s symptoms are caused by more than one condition. This leaves the undiagnosed condition untreated and allows it to progress further and affect the patient’s prognosis.