Relevance of Patient’s Medical History in Medical Malpractice Suits
Before we discuss anything about medical malpractice suits and the liability of both sides, we must realize that it is not easy to diagnose and treat a patient accurately, especially if you are not their regular physician. Doctors usually rely on a lot of historical data from the patient’s skin or the emergency responder to diagnose and treat the person in distress. That is where a patient’s medical history comes into place.
So, what is a medical history report and how do hospitals ensure that they have the right information before starting any treatment or diagnosing a symptom. These are crucial pieces of information that can become a matter of life or death. These also become a vital part of any insurance claim investigation that you may need.
Let us take a look at the finer details in layman terms.
Medical History - What is it?
Medical History is a list of ailments that a patient may have suffered in the past. This is something that can affect the course of treatment and the patient’s response to the treatment method.
How can Hospitals accurately collect a Patient’s Medical History?
When a patient is admitted to any treatment center such as a clinic, emergency response station, or a trauma center based on the severity of the issue, the first step doctors ask is the patient’s vital and medical details.
Usually, the EMS team is the first to arrive on a scene to assess the situation and subsequently take the patient to an advanced care center. The EMS team must ensure that they have collected all the vital data such as name, age, address, next of kin, allergies, current medical conditions, any medical implants such as pacemaker to fill an accurate report. The EMS report becomes the first data point for any doctor. Doctors must then conduct their investigation based on the patient’s condition, blood reports, scan reports, and next of kin interviews to understand the patient’s history.
Most patients having diabetes, heart problems, or other critical ailments also carry some documentation or medical bracelet with them. Doctors and the EMS team must check the patient’s belongings and bodies for any such information. This is critical and must be checked before any treatment begins. Often, patients suffering from life-threatening diseases are given the wrong treatment leading to an unfortunate set of events.
Role of Medical History in Malpractice Suits
To win a malpractice suit, the legal team needs to establish beyond doubt that there was negligence or misconduct from the medical team. Most insurance carriers also need this to provide a corresponding payout. In such cases, the medical history documents read in conjunction with the patient’s treatment summaries can provide a clue as to what went wrong and where.
Medical history documents also can be compared to the EMS run report submitted to the hospital to understand if all the information was conveyed to the treatment center.
Medical History and Medical Summaries
We have already established that the medical history documents and EMS reports play a vital role in fighting your case to the fullest extent. Often, law firms use third-party medical summary teams to analyze the patient’s treatment records, and EMS reports to summarize them in a way the legal team can easily use. By bringing the medical summary team to look at the medical history records as well, you can have an expert opinion correlate the many documents in front of you.
We ensure that all the medical records are summarized in chronological order without the medical jargon so that the significant facts are laid bare for your perusal.
Contact us today to get a medical summary report prepared by the experts and turn the corner on your lawsuit.
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