Medical-legal claims often revolve around the medical records of the plaintiff. Evidence from medical records has the ability to change the outcome of these injury claims. In-depth analysis of patient’s medical charts supports legal claims including worker’s compensation, product liability, social security disability, medical malpractice and insurance claims.
However, unearthing evidence from medical records involves numerous challenges for legal professionals. Through an effective medical chart analysis, lawyers can get vital insights to build strong claims and thereby ensure financial recompense for their clients.
Before analyzing the importance of medical chart analysis, we should know the role of medical facts in medical-legal claims.
How vital are medical facts in personal injury claims?
In personal injury lawsuits, attorneys must prove three key elements: liability, causation, and damages. This involves demonstrating who was responsible for the accident, that the accident directly caused the injury, and that the injury resulted in quantifiable damages to the plaintiff.
Medical facts from the plaintiff’s medical records are pivotal in substantiating these elements. They will have traces of evidence to prove the extent of injury or demonstrate the fact that it exacerbated an existing injury. Medical charts can provide a detailed description of the injury, diagnoses, treatments, impacts on the plaintiff’s daily activities and the duration of necessary treatments for a full recovery.
From the medical records, attorneys can also establish the quantifiable damages like the present and future medical expenses, lost workdays, loss of earning capacity, and required home modifications due to the injury. It can also offer evidence to establish the pain and suffering and emotional distress of the plaintiff.
Importance of Medical Chart Analysis
Most often, a plaintiff’s medical records constitute thousands of pages including visits to various providers, therapies, diagnostic test reports, and imaging studies. Attorneys cannot go through the entire documents every time in search of medical facts.
By conducting a thorough medical chart analysis, they can comprehend the medical journey of the plaintiff, in a coherent order. Let’s see the significance of medical chart analysis in establishing medical legal claims in detail.
Organizes the disorganized medical charts
Searching for vital charts from the voluminous documents can be tricky. Medical chart analysis starts with sorting and indexing all the jumbled medical records in order. This would make cross-referencing much easier.
Ensures legibility, accuracy and objectivity in medical data
Different types of medical records like handwritten notes, electronic medical records, or hybrid medical records can lead to inconsistencies in grasping the medical facts in their essence. Medical chart analysis clears all this confusion and presents vital medical facts accurately and objectively.
Establishes facts and timelines
Medical chart analysis enables us to get a clear, chronological timeline of a patient’s medical history including the dates of diagnoses and treatment. The progress notes clearly depict the patient’s progress and changes in their health conditions. It also extracts the list of prescribed medications, dosages, and any changes made over time.
Through a well-structured treatment timeline, it helps the attorneys and court to learn about the progression of a medical condition, the care provided, which is vital for establishing the claims.
Supports liability and causation
Proving causation and liability is a vital part of all medical-legal claims. A thorough medical chart analysis can demonstrate the link between the specific incident and the plaintiff’s injury. It could identify if the plaintiff received standard medical care, or if any deviations of care contributed to the plaintiff’s condition. This can be vital in supporting medical malpractice claims and proving liability or negligence.
Identifies inconsistencies and gaps
Medical records may have inconsistencies or gaps in treatments, which can be crucial in proving a claim. Medical chart analysis can highlight the differences between the medical charts from various providers and patient testimonies or other traces of evidence.
Identifying potential gaps in treatment can either prove negligence in care or patient’s non-compliance to treatment. These insights can be pivotal in defending or prosecuting medical-legal cases.
Simplifies complex medical jargon
Physicians often use medical terminologies to describe medical conditions and treatments. Non-medical people like lawyers, juries, or plaintiffs may not understand the complex medical jargon in the clinical charts. Abbreviations and shorthands too can cause confusion and inaccuracy in comprehending medical data.
Medical chart analysis presents the medical conditions and treatments in simple and easily intelligible terms to facilitate a better understanding of medical facts.
Identifies missing records
To get a comprehensive picture of the plaintiff’s medical journey, all medical records should be available. Any missing record can leave the medical history like a missing piece of a puzzle. Medical chart analysis locates the missing records and help the lawyers to retrieve the missing medical charts to complete the picture.
Provides expert opinions
Medical record analysis often involves medical professionals who can offer expert medical opinions on the appropriateness of care. It evaluates if the medical provider offered standard medical care, or proper treatments as indicted by the diagnostic reports.
They can also substantiate if a different care would have brought a different outcome for the patient. They can simplify the complex medical issues to assist the jury and judges to get a clear understanding of the legal arguments.
Helps in settlement negotiations
Most of the medical-legal claims often settle out of court. A strong medical chart analysis can provide solid evidence to argue for higher compensation or favorable outcome during settlement negotiations. It can also clearly quantify the extent of damages, including expected future medical needs and associated medical costs.
Speeds up legal proceedings
By collating all the vital facts from the medical charts, with all possible medical evidence to prove the causation and damages, medical chart analysis speeds up all litigation proceedings.
At times of need like in depositions and trials, attorneys can refer the medical chart analysis reports to form arguments and quote proofs. Attorneys can present these reports as exhibits to support the plaintiff’s claims at court.
Why do you need a medical chart review provider?
Partnering with a professional medical chart analysis provider can offer significant advantages to the attorneys. The medical and legal professionals from such firms have expertise in ensuring accuracy in interpreting medical facts and supporting legal claims.
Outsourcing medical chart analysis to medical chart review providers allows legal teams to focus on strategizing and focusing on other legal proceedings. Their expertise and professional skills guarantee that medical data is accurate, complete, and presented in a coherent order. They can present the reports from an unbiased perspective, which is crucial in legal claims.
Hiring medical chart review providers can offer significant savings in terms of time and resources. It is cheaper than maintaining an in-house medical chart analysis team. Accurate and efficient chart analysis can expedite legal proceedings and ensure quick and favorable settlements.
Chart review providers can proffer a comprehensive report of medical facts, timelines, and expert opinions, which can be helpful during depositions, trials, arbitrations and settlement negotiations.
A professional team of medical records chart analysis can significantly improve the quality of medical evidence presented in courts and support legal strategies to win medical-legal claims.
In essence, medical chart analysis is essential in medical-legal cases. It provides a factual foundation, supports causation and liability, identifies inconsistencies, offers expert opinions and facilitates smoother and favorable verdicts. Having a professional medical chart review team by their side, attorneys and law firms can proceed with confidence.
LezDo TechMed offers accurate and precise medical chart analysis for all kinds of legal scenarios such as personal injury, workers compensation, product liability and insurance claims. Reach out to us and avail a free trial to experience it yourselves!
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