Doctors have a moral and professional obligation to act in the best interests of their patients. They take an oath to do no harm, and professional standards require that they treat all patients with equal care. Most of them make every reasonable effort to uphold that duty. However, doctors are humans who can make mistakes and experience burnout. Even the most detail-oriented and well-educated doctors may make a few mistakes when diagnosing and treating their patients over the course of their careers. When do those mistakes go beyond simple errors and become medical malpractice? 

Could another doctor have diagnosed the patient?

Malpractice occurs when negligence or behavior that does not meet professional standards causes harm to patients. To bring a malpractice claim, patients must show that their doctor failed to accurately diagnose them where it is reasonable to expect they should have and that the patient suffered harm as a result. In some cases, symptoms may be so generic that any doctor might struggle to properly diagnose the patient with the limited information available. Other times, another reasonable physician given the same situation could likely diagnose the patient accurately. In that latter situation, where other medical professionals review the situation and accurately reach an appropriate diagnostic conclusion or at least can outline the steps to reach one, the diagnostic error that occurred may constitute malpractice. If doctors jump to conclusions, overlook critical information or let their personal biases influence their diagnostic efforts, their patients may ultimately pay the price. Those dealing with the medical and financial consequences of a diagnostic error may sometimes have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Reviewing the medical records related to a diagnostic error can help a patient determine if their physician made a mistake that another could have avoided.