Poor Follow Up on Hospital Tests Exposes Hospitals and HSE to Significant Negligence Claims

Dr. Muiris Houston, writing in the Irish Times today, has raised serious concerns about poor follow up on hospital tests. His comments follow a project carried out by researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, on studies which examined the impact of missed test results published between 1990 and 2010.
Their research found that the lack of follow up on hospital tests for inpatients in some areas was as high as 60 per cent, while one study revealed that tests carried out on patients in an emergency department were not followed up 75 per cent of the time. A further study of medical negligence claims revealed that 71 per cent of claims were due to a missed diagnosis while in emergency care, which later resulted in some form of harm to the patient.
The report, which was published in the BMJ Quality and Safety Journal, highlights a particular problem when patients are discharged from hospital and either into outpatient care or into the care of their GP. The tests which are most commonly overlooked include blood tests and diagnostic imaging such as X-rays and scans, with the consequences of these hospital tests not being followed up being potentially missed cancer diagnoses, inappropriate antibiotic treatments and the development of osteoporosis.
Dr. Houston pointed out in his article the relevance of these findings in Ireland, and cited recent cases such as the Hayes Investigation into the Tallaght Hospital which found evidence of 57.921 unreported x-ray films dating back to 2003, and the tragic cases of Ann Moriarty and Edel Kelly who died from cancer shortly after being given the all-clear from Ennis County Hospital in 2008 and after abnormal blood test results were filed and not acted upon.
Dr. Houston, who is a clinical fellow with the Department of Medicine at the National University of Ireland, Galway, feels in his article that missed test results are a substantial problem and raises concern about public safety – a theme often mentioned in his TV and radio appearances, and one which features in his book “Your Work; Your Health”.