Pneumonia (as described here) can be deadly, but in the vast majority of situations, timely diagnosis and intervention can avoid serious complications. However, when pneumonia is not timely diagnosed and treated, and serious injury or death occurs, it can give rise to a valid malpractice claim. Pneumonia misdiagnosis cases can arise many different ways.
A doctor may choose for whatever reason to not even consider pneumonia, even when she is faced with a patient with sufficient signs and symptoms that mandates further investigation. For example, a patient might not “look” sick, even though objective data tells the doctor she is. Because pneumonia has the potential to kill, doctors must be vigilant and not cut corners or take mental shortcuts, but must follow their diagnostic process in logical fashion, just as they are taught in medical school.
Alternatively, the doctor may consider pneumonia, but may not take the appropriate steps to rule it out (or diagnose it). Fortunately, in 2020 there are many tools available to doctors to avoid creating a pneumonia misdiagnosis case. This includes the tests mentioned above, as well as pneumonia severity calculators, a number of which exist, have been validated, and can be extremely useful to doctors to avoid missing a potentially serious diagnosis.
One is called the PSI/PORT Score (you can find it here). Doctors can click “yes” or “no” to a series of questions about the patient’s objective data (such as respiratory rate, temperature, and lab results), and the calculator assigns points to each value. The result is a risk assessment of the chances the patient will die, and recommendations for treatment (including hospitalization). Although it is not necessary for a doctor to use a calculator like this one, it can be helpful to avoid misdiagnosing pneumonia.
Pneumonia misdiagnosis cases can also occur anywhere a patient goes for help with symptoms caused by pneumonia, including a primary care office, an emergency department, or an urgent care clinic.
Fortunately, for most patients, if caught in a timely manner, pneumonia can be treated and the patient will safely recover.
However, when providers have all the information necessary to consider pneumonia as a diagnosis, and have all the tools to make the diagnosis and they fail to do so, it can lead to catastrophic consequences, including death.
