How do doctors fail to diagnose an infection?

Most people have to deal with various types of infections throughout their lifetime. When an infection enters your body, it can begin to multiply rapidly. Prompt treatment can help you feel better as quickly as possible. However, the infection can spread and worsen if you do not receive a diagnosis.

Unfortunately, some doctors fail to diagnose an infection.

Failure to identify signs of an infection

Bacterial infections can occur in a variety of ways. First, if you have cuts or wounds on your body, bacteria can enter through breaks in the skin and multiply. Second, some infections begin to grow within the body. Strep throat, pneumonia and urinary tract infections start and grow within the body.

Signs of an infection include:

• Fatigue
• Fever
• Headaches
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Nausea

Some symptoms depend on the location of the infection. For instance, pneumonia may result in a cough, shortness of breath and chest pain. On the other hand, food poisoning may include abdominal cramping, nausea and vomiting.

Limited access to thorough documentation

While in a hospital, you will interact with nurses more often than the physician. The doctor relies on thorough documentation from the nurses. Nurses help you meet your needs but also document critical evidence about your condition. The notes that your nurses take can serve as a roadmap to your condition. They are forms of interprofessional communication. If the nurse does not have thorough notes, then the doctors may not know the full scope of your condition. It can become easier for them to treat your symptoms as underlying causes for other conditions.

To treat infections, physicians must start patients on antibiotics as soon as possible. Your situation can become grave quickly when a doctor fails to diagnose an infection.