Radiologic Errors and Malpractice: A Blurry Distinction

摘要

Approximately 4% of radiologic in-rpretations rendered by radiolo-sts in their daily practice contain rors . Fortunately, most of these errors are of such minor degree, or if serious are found and corrected with sufficient promptness, that they do not cause injury to patients. Nevertheless, many radiologic errors do harm patients and, as a result, medical malpractice lawsuits are generated. If it is determined by a judge or jury that the diagnostic error committed by a defendant-radiologist was the result of negligence, in other words, a breach of the standard of medical care, the radiologist will be held liable and compensation will be awarded to the plaintiff-patient. On the other hand, if the defendant's radiologic error is found not to be due to negligence, litigation is terminated without compensation. It follows then that certain radiologic errors result from radiologists' negligent conduct, and others do not. One may then logically ask whether these two kinds of radiologic errors, those that constitute negligence and those that do not, can be distinguished and if so, how? This article will attempt to seek an answer to these questions.