The results of a study presented at this year’s annual International Society for Geriatric Oncology should give everyone reason to pause. The study found that elderly people residing in nursing homes do not receive comparable cancer diagnoses and care as elderly people in other settings, and that the results can be painful and tragic.
Medical Malpractice: Failure to Diagnose Cancer in Atlanta Nursing Home Patients
Dr. Giuseppe Colloca presented the findings of the study and concluded that cancer appears to be often ignored in nursing homes and that there is often a misdiagnosis of cancer. That misdiagnosis is then downplayed because the nursing home resident was in poor health anyway. Specifically, the study of more than 145,000 nursing home patients in five states found that:
- More than 20% of patients in pain receive no medication
- Late and unstaged cancer is more prevalent among elderly in nursing homes, as compared with elderly people residing in other locations
- Little cancer treatment even for early stage and relatively easy to treat cancer
- Little use of hospice for those with end stage cancers
- On average, survival time for nursing home patients with cancers was approximately 110 days
Dr. Colloca believes that this problem needs to be addressed and so do our Atlanta cancer misdiagnosis attorneys.
Contact an Atlanta Medical Malpractice Lawyer if Your Loved One Suffered From Medical Malpractice: Failure to Diagnose
The misdiagnosis of cancer is not always inevitable. If your loved one’s cancer was wrongly diagnosed and your loved one suffered physical harm, then your loved one, or your family, may be entitled to damages.
If you are interested in learning more about the diagnosis of cancer and potential medical malpractice issues please read our FREE book: Cancer: Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Errors, and please contact an experienced Atlanta failure to diagnose attorney at 1.770.518.1133.