Question

(Using 500 words and scholarly sources) Who should be held accountable for mistakes in diagnosis and treatment when there are several parties involved including (but not limited to) the on-site physician, remote specialist and other medical personnel, and the telecommunications equipment manufacturer?

Answer 1

Greetings of the day!

Answer:

Who should be held accountable for mistakes in diagnosis and treatment when there are several parties involved including (but not limited to) the on-site physician, remote specialist and other medical personnel, and the telecommunications equipment manufacturer?

Medical knowledge doubles approximately every eight years, so a physician’s knowledge base is outdated very quickly after graduation from medical school. Keeping up with current knowledge by reading journal articles is impractical due to the volume of material and lack of time for reading it.

Computerization of the knowledge (and implementation into EHRs of recommended clinical guidelines) means the physician only has to enter a suspected diagnosis or result, click “accept” or “ignore” on a recommended guideline — and in many cases, not thinking they know more than the software, having not had time to keep up with the current knowledge, may click on “accept” just to complete the transaction and move on.

But if the recommendation turns out to be incorrect, precedent says, the physician should still be held responsible. After all, they used their professional judgment to evaluate the recommendation before accepting.