De Jong apologizes for botched scans
Delayed treatment or misdiagnosis has so far contributed to the deaths of at least three B.C. residents and several others have suffered serious continuing harm to their health due to errors by radiologists who lacked proper skills and training, an investigation shows.
Health Minister Mike de Jong apologized to patients, their families and the public Tuesday during a one-hour news conference. “To all of these patients, and their families, I,sacs louis vuitton we, are very, very sorry,” de Jong said, adding the health system is not infallible since it’s staffed by humans who can make mistakes.
In some cases, doctors working with such radiologists observed ineptitude but failed to promptly report their colleagues.
“Delays in treatment occurred, changes in treatment occurred, tests were repeated. There were additional interventions and procedures because of these errors,” said an emotional Dr. Doug Cochrane, who led the review.
Immediate fixes are being made to prevent such errors in the future and potential compensation for patients and their families is being discussed, de Jong said.
The government-ordered probe involved the re-interpretation of about 14,000 imaging studies done in four health regions at various periods of time during 2010.
Independent radiologists looked at the images to assess the quality and accuracy of test results as they were originally interpreted by four radiologists working in Powell River, the Fraser Valley and Comox. Work done by one of the radiologists when he spent time in Cranbrook was also reviewed but no problems were detected.
Serious discrepancies were found only with CT scans, not with mammograms, ultrasounds or plain X-ray tests, said Cochrane, who is chairman of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council.
Discrepancies between the original report and the subsequent interpretation by another radiologist occurred in as many as 17 per cent of CT scans, a rate about three times higher than what usually triggers an audit.
The report said the errors occurred because of lack of oversight and monitoring, and gaps in the way the College of Physicians and Surgeons assessed the credentials of some radiologists.
There are also problems with the way hospitals and health authorities grant privileges to doctors when they’re hired.
Cochrane and his review team found critical information about doctors’ training and competency is kept in silos instead of being shared. And medical authorities have had no “credible” monitoring process to detect deficient work on the part of a few of the radiologists who were basically learning how to read CT scans on the job.
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