Supposedly, diagnostic physicians should call the referring clinicians once a test result done to the patient demonstrated unusual, urgent of unexpected findings.

Based on the article chosen as the “CME Activity of the Month” from the latest edition of the Journal of the American College Radiology (JACR), the fast growth of diagnostic testing seems to be bringing physicians at a higher risk for medical malpractice claims due to test communication failures.

In the said article, it is noted that during the past ten years, clinicians have ordered larger numbers of diagnostic examinations. They also cited a study showing that malpractice claims related to diagnosis increased by about 40% from 1996 to 2003.

Factors contributing in medical malpractice cases associated with failure in communication between the diagnostic physician and the clinicians include, for an instance, failure of the attending physician and the patient to receive test results, delay in report findings and long turn around time.

Further studies show that numbers of medical malpractice claims related to communication failure since 1991 to 2009 rapidly increased. There are lots of things that can be caused by miscommunication, not only in medical practices but as well as in all other fields too. Miscommunication could be misleading at all times.

Physicians are now working for the improvement of notification reliability system, work flow improvement and safety of the patients and if necessary, to give legal documentation to avoid more medical malpractice resulting from communication failure.