Rushed Radiology Results in Missed Diagnoses

Veterans’ Administration Hospitals have been under fire for over a year after it was revealed that, in many areas, patients’ applications for service were intentionally lost in order to make it appear the hospitals were hitting enrollment requirements. These enrollment requirements were used to justify large bonuses for many VA staff, who prioritized their own greed over the lives of military personnel.

The newest scandal rocking VA hospitals show that even when patients were seen, there was no guarantee that the quality of care was adequate. A number of patients who received MRI, PET, and CAT scans through the Veterans’ Administration and were cleared have later been revealed to be suffering from cancer. Upon reevaluation of the original scans, the cancer diagnosis should have been caught years earlier.

It is still unclear in many of these cases whether the radiologist failed to note the initial cancerous mass, or if the radiologist failed to convey the results to the physician. Initial reports indicate these hospitals and clinics were trying to get through as many MRIs and other imaging tests as quickly as they could in order to qualify for bonuses. Radiologists at the VA were performing double the number of exams in a day as the industry standard. A whistleblower, Dr. L. Anthony Leskosky brought the issue to light and was promptly fired for it.

Failure to follow up can come in many forms when dealing with radiologists, from failing to read the test in the first place to failing to inform either the physician or the patient of the results. In these cases, years elapsed between when the diagnosis should have been made and when it finally was, and cancer had progressed past the stage of being treatable.

If you or someone you love has suffered due to failure to follow up, it is important you follow through on holding the radiologist and physician accountable. These types of mistakes continue to get made until someone forces the medical establishment to take note of them. Please, retain an experienced attorney who will help you make your case.