Important medical information is often found in lab results, imaging reports, pathology reports, biopsy results, and specialist recommendations. When healthcare providers fail to track, communicate, or act on abnormal results, patients can lose critical time.
Failure-to-follow-up cases may involve abnormal imaging, abnormal blood work, suspicious pathology, elevated cancer markers, abnormal PSA tests, abnormal mammograms, abnormal CT scans, biopsy results, or specialist recommendations that require further care.
These cases often involve breakdowns in communication between doctors, nurses, radiologists, labs, specialists, clinics, hospitals, and patients. Sometimes the test result is available, but no one tells the patient. Sometimes the result is reported, but no one orders the follow-up testing. Sometimes a patient is referred to a specialist, but the referral is never completed or tracked.
Rawls Law Group handles failure-to-follow-up cases involving Virginia medical malpractice and federal/FTCA medical malpractice. We investigate what the test showed, who received the result, what should have been done, and whether the delay caused serious harm.
Common Failure-to-Follow-Up Cases
Failure-to-follow-up malpractice cases may involve:
- Abnormal imaging results
- Suspicious CT, MRI, x-ray, ultrasound, or mammogram findings
- Abnormal pathology or biopsy results
- Elevated PSA or other cancer markers
- Abnormal blood work
- Missed specialist referrals
- Failure to notify a patient of test results
- Failure to schedule repeat testing
- Failure to track pending results after discharge
- Failure to act on radiology recommendations
Virginia and Federal Failure-to-Follow-Up Claims
Failure to follow up on abnormal test results can occur in hospitals, clinics, emergency departments, VA facilities, military medical facilities, IHS facilities, and other healthcare settings.
Rawls Law Group represents patients and families in serious cases where a provider’s failure to track, communicate, or act on abnormal results caused delayed diagnosis, worsened prognosis, serious injury, or death.