Pros And Cons Of A Radiologist Being V For Malpractice

Are Radiologist being sued for malpractice because of improper standard of care or are they just being careless.
It is hard to say what is in the mind of a Radiologist every time he or she gets a case they should read, would they read it accurately. The Radiologist can get an exam that is obvious like a broken toe, but there are times they can get exams that is not so obvious, and now what do they do. They can choose to read the exam or close it and choose another exam to read instead. Although morally this sounds horrible they should just read the exam they just opened ethically as a physician, he or she is allowed to do this since according to principles of medical ethics it states: (Fremgen, 2016) A physician shall, in the provision of appropriate
health care, except in emergencies, be free to choose whom to serve. There are times when a Radiologist just reads an exam and barely looks at the exam. I hear them and I say to myself “could it really be that simple, is there really nothing wrong with the patient but in reality, I will never know. There have been times, exams are read as no visible fractures, yet ill look at the exam and see a visible fracture and think to myself are they blind, did they not see that. I find myself calling the Radiologist. I do not want the patient to leave with this injury that could possibly cause more physical harm if left untreated. Radiologist are in high demand from many physicians, that want answers to their patient’s ailments which, cause a strain on the radiologist to rush for an answer. This rush in turn causes the radiologist to miss vital information, which consequently, causes the patients to get worst, which then causes a law suit. All this can be avoided if they simply take their time to read the exam. I have spoken to several radiologists about the fact that they read so many exams so fast and their response is always the same they don’t have the luxury to take their time they need to read fast because they have too many exams to read and to many physicians and patients waiting for results, if they don’t read fast they are questioned as to what is taking so long. This is a very stressful situation for the radiologist. Sometimes you call and they are irritable and don’t have time to answer your question or to add another exam to the many exams they already have. There are time it’s not the radiologist fault at all that there was a misdiagnosis. For instance: according to (Romano, 2012) there are many reasons why radiologist make errors in identifying and interpreting abnormalities. Poor ergonomics and ambient light, frequent telephone disturbances, working with an inexperience resident, clinical history and other factors are various sources of errors.
In conclusion, in my opinion most Radiologist simply make mistakes because they were not diligent in evaluating the exam, not necessarily because they were intentionally being careless but simply because they were distracted, rushed, stressed or maybe it was something they had no idea was affecting their reading at all like lighting.
Yes, there are Radiologist that took the job just for the money or they thought it was going to be easy sitting in a chair reading all day but it is far from easy and if they are not careful they will be part of that list of Radiologists being sued today for malpractice for reading quickly with no regard for the patient. Hopefully this carelessness never causes harm to any patient It takes a lot of courage to decide to take a profession in which you place someone’s life in your hands and as a physician you must decide prior to taking this profession is this something you really want to do. There will be times when you will make mistakes and there will be times you don’t make mistakes but a patient feels you did something wrong and you might have a suit against you. Although majority of the times it is unintentional negligence, it can still affect your career. If it happens more than once who are people going to believe you or the
patient.

Romano, Luigia, and Antonio Pinto. Errors in Radiology, edited by Luigia Romano, and Antonio Pinto, Springer Milan, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.resource.adu.edu/lib/fhchs-ebooks/detail.action?docID=973172.
Works Cited
Fremgen, B. F. (2016). Medical law and ethics (5th ed.). Julie Levin Alexander.
Romano, L. P. (2012). Errors in Radiology (1 ed.). Springler Milan.