Finding Medical Record Errors Amidst Your Personal Injury Case
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
When you are in the middle of a personal injury case, then finding any medical errors, even small ones, can prove to be disastrous to your claim. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence, and you may find that your medical records may contain inaccurate or missing information or may have some significant omissions that can interfere with your case.Emergency Level Errors
If you received care in the emergency room following your accident, then you know how quickly things moved while you were there. You may have sustained serious injuries that left you unable to speak or communicate with the medical personnel so that some information may have been left off or miscommunicated.
The emergency room doctors are more concerned with the type of injuries that need to be treated immediately, rather than what caused them in the first place. So, while they may be aware that you were involved in an accident, they are going to be less concerned about those details and more concerned with how they are going to treat your injuries.
Follow-Up Care Errors
You can also find errors to your medical records when it comes to your follow up care. These errors can ultimately cause many more problems than emergency room errors, however, because during these times you can communicate with the physician that is treating you and those notes are then dictated between patients.
Therefore, when attending these appointments, it is imperative that you ensure that all the information is being correctly recorded to help avoid any mistakes that could damage your personal injury case.
How to Avoid Errors
Which brings us to finding other ways we can help avoid these mistakes from happening in the first place.
• Always be clear when outlining any concerns you have. Make sure your doctor is aware of all your medical concerns and be sure that they are accurately recorded. Make sure each pain point is documented with specific details.
• Seek treatment right away. After an accident, you should immediately seek medical treatment for your injuries. This is the point at which the documentation will begin to help prove your injuries.
• Review your chart. Don’t be afraid to ask to have a look at your chart to ensure there are no errors. You have a right to view this information.
• Discuss your symptoms. Even the most minor symptoms should still be brought up with your doctor; do not leave any details out. Some of these more minor issues could very well turn into more serious and long-term problems later on, so it is important to document them.
Seek Advice
If you are still unsure about your personal injury case or you have found discrepancies that could cause a problem, it doesn’t hurt to discuss your case with an attorney that is knowledgeable when it comes to personal injury cases.
They can help you gather all the appropriate documentation and make sure everything gets done properly and in a timely matter to help move your personal injury case into a more positive direction.
They will also be able to help find any red flags that may be present in your medical records and can help you correct the information, so you can receive the compensation you are entitled to for your injuries.