12 Million Veterans Diagnosis Mistakes A Year?

Diagnosis mistakes for veterans: 12 million happen a year
WLOS News
by Jennifer Emert
Wednesday, February 22nd 2017

A study by VA Dr. Hardeep Singh shows more than 12 million VA and private patients are misdiagnosed a year. Singh's research blames it on doctors not getting enough time to be face to face with their patients or their medical records. The average exam time has gone from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Making up for past mistakes has been a focus of the Veterans Health Administration.

Overall, there's been an improvement. But, from the front lines, from several veterans' perspectives, sometimes it is a battle to get the right diagnosis.

The Charles George VA Medical Center's rating is great, recently receiving five stars. But that’s based on the VA's data on inpatient treatment.

One mountain veteran is telling a different story, a story that lasted a year and ended up with him leaving the system.

“I feel like I'm fighting more of a battle back here than I have over there,” Chad Thomas said.

At 26, Thomas fought on Iraq's front lines. He was deployed to Iraq in 2004-05 as an airborne infantryman, assigned to the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade.

“Anytime there was a convoy, that was my job,” Thomas said.

From his Humvee gunner's post, he protected soldiers in and out of Bagdad's airport. Twelve years later, Thomas' battle has gone from the war room to an exam room.

“That's usually what I see happening, when there's an infection, I usually have all this other stuff,” Thomas said.

He's waging war on an infection that six months ago was much larger, blackening the skin.
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