Most physicians are confident in their medical accuracy. However, just because confidence is high does not mean they are indeed correct in their diagnoses. One study of 118 physicians across the United States were studied.
The results found that physicians were only 55 percent accurate. However, their confidence in the medical accuracy of their diagnoses was very high. These are alarming results. But with over 10,000 medical diagnoses to choose from, you can see how this can be a frequent problem.
In addition, making a diagnosis is based on many factors including lab tests, consultations, and truthful reporting on the part of the patient.
Despite all of this, medical accuracy is necessary for many reasons, some of which are listed below.
Avoid Malpractice Lawsuits
While personal injury lawyers may be okay with these statistics, physicians are not.
Physicians want to do whatever it takes to avoid such malpractice lawsuits. Steps you can take to avoid lawsuits is to spend more time with your patients to make sure your evaluation is complete for the greatest chance of medical accuracy.
Patients forget a lot of their own personal medical histories. If you have enough questions in your evaluation, you are likely to gain the most accurate information from them. This will lead to accurate diagnoses rather than misdiagnoses that can lead to legal issues.
Avoid Causing Injury to Your Patient
Misdiagnosis has been reported as a main reason for injuries caused to patients. Injuries can include the side effects medicines produce. Injuries can also be caused by interactions between medicines or allergic reactions the patients have because of taking the wrong medicine.
Using doctor dispensing software or a web based portal can all but eliminate this problem. The software is installed with technology that can detect possible harmful interactions among drugs you are prescribing and help increase medical accuracy with prescription dispensing.
It can also compare your patient’s chart with a medicine you prescribe to check for potential allergic reactions.
Avoid Patient Death With Increased Medical Accuracy
A CNN headline reads, “Medical errors may be third leading cause of death.” That is an alarming statement. According to the Institute of Medicine, misdiagnoses contribute to ten percent of patient deaths in the United States.
You are in the business of patient care and while mistakes do happen, you want to take every extra measure to ensure medical accuracy and avoid fatalities among your patients.
Misdiagnoses can happen for many reasons, from physician inattention to patients not telling the truth about their symptoms. To protect yourself from a misdiagnosis, employ a stricter evaluation system.
Have patients sign off on their own evaluations, giving them the opportunity to add information and verify that everything they have told you is true.
Avoid Prescribing the Wrong Medicines
Prescribing the wrong medicine can harm a patient. Prescribing the right medicine for a wrong diagnosis can harm a patient. Furthermore, the wrong dosage of the right medicine can harm a patient. This makes medical accuracy when it comes to prescriptions paramount in maintaining a reputable practice.
This is another time when using a web based portal could come in handy. The software installed will recognize if the medicine is incorrect, alerting you to act.
With the number of patients, you see in a day or week, you could benefit from help in identifying issues with the medicines you are prescribing. The software can also keep you updated as to whether the patient is compliant with taking their medications.
When patients are compliant and your medical accuracy improves, you both get better results.
Improved Health Outcomes
Medical accuracy leads to patients reaching their treatment plan goals. They start showing signs of getting healthier. They report feeling better and being able to participate more actively in daily activities. They are noticeably happier.
You are meeting your goals as a physician when your patient outcomes increase. You too can feel good about the way you practice medicine. How healthy your patients become partially depends on how well you do your job.
Being accurate in your diagnoses and in prescribing the right medicines are two ways you can evaluate yourself. It is how your patients will measure your performance.
Use tools that can help you make the right decisions when treating patients. Implement services such as in-office dispensing that gives you more control over how you treat patients. Use the web based portal that comes with round the clock support. Take advantage of the software benefits that range from checking for drug interactions and allergies to billing to claims submission.
Using tools such as these can help you reach your goals of having successful patient outcomes and maintaining medical accuracy.