Idk how to go about this but I recently went to the doctor for an annual check up and 2 weeks after my visit the doctor called me Saying I have an extreme diagnosis of chlamydia that needs to immediately be treated. I immediately said that’s not possible, I been with my partner for years; infidelity is never a thing and I will die on that hill to defend that. I immediately went to urgent care with my partner and we both got tested. We both was negative and was told we were actually both healthy and any results I got before must be someone else results. So now after days of them forcing a medicine on to me and all the emotions can I do something to compensate for this? Like I know it’s not extreme diagnosis but I wasted time and tears trying to figure this out with my partner. Even thinking maybe I got assaulted without my knowledge. When the doctor told me on the phone she immediately dismissed my confusion and kept saying “well you must’ve got it from your partner”. Ppl like that should not be in the medical field. Please help!!
*JUST TO ADD ON for like comments. On the phone I did ask to get retested cause like I said THERE IS NO WAY. The nurse proceeded to say only time to get retested is in March but I should start taking the medicine to just be safe. She said there was no time and I have to wait. I’m so happy I listed to my gut and went somewhere else. But from that response it also gave me a bad taste with there professionalism.
File a complaint with the county Health Department, and state medical board. You didn’t take any unnecessary medication and you were not harmed, other than getting irritated and stressed understandably.
I’ve been in this situation before, false cancer diagnosis, attorneys shared it wasn’t worth the squeeze for a lawsuit. I did file complaints though.
Did they do anything after the complaint? I just want to make sure it handled and not something brushed under a rug
Great question. I never followed up after the complaint was made and I don’t recall anyone following up with me. It was 10 years ago. It was the radiologist that made the error not my regular doc.
If you make the complaint at least it's on the record. Sometimes the only way to get anything done is when enough people file.
It’s a mistake. What do you expect to happen? Nobody imposing their job because they called the wrong phone number. Nobody is getting suspended for a simple mistake. Yes it sucks for you but at the end of the day healthcare workers are human too and mistakes happen.
Negligence + Harm = lawsuit potential.
Someone can be negligent as fuck, but if they aren’t harming anyone there isn’t going to be a lawsuit.
Harm can happen in medicine but if someone wasn’t negligent no lawsuit.
You have a mistake, not gross negligence, and no harm. What do you think should happen?
Yes but what about the person who possible results and information I got and them not being able to be treated
LOL, the replies on this are nuts.
An attorney? You've suffered no damages. Even if you did take the medication it's just a strong course of antibiotics. Unless you're allergic, you'll have no damages other than an upset stomach.
Medical malpractice? Sometimes doctors screw up and most of the time they are arrogant but that doesn't mean it's malpractice.
Now onto the advice, if you don't have chlamydia then don't take the medication. If you're not OK with your current doctor then find another one.
Yea but I feel bad because whoever results it was has no idea currently
That is the real malpractice.
Excellent, common sense, logical advice! Who knows what happened here? It could've simply been a false positive. OP should've immediately gone to a different clinic and gotten another test before getting the meds and taking them. It's certainly not reason to sue or get a lawyer! No medical test is 100% accurate 100% if the time. OP needs to get a new doctor if she's not happy with hers, learn from the experience, and move on.
Exactly. Agree 100%
I agree with you that the Doctor has dreadful people skills but to immediately jump onto lawyering up and suing you must be an American. How about understanding that engaging a legal procedure will damage your body and mind either way stress? Is it worth it? What do you want to achieve? Getting the Doctor to apologise and acknowledge their mistake would be kinder to yourself! Everyone make mistakes.
But it’s not just that the made a mistake. Lab results was sent to someone else. So for that person they got a negative test but don’t know they have an STD. That’s not fair to them. Especially in the line of OBGYN u can’t make ur parents uncomfortable and gaslit. It felt like I was fighting for my life for them to even want to restest me. Idk if I added this but IMPORTANT, when I asked to get restested they said “only thing we have available is March” which made me have to do to urgent care. That’s ridiculous
I had a note added to my file when I was pregnant that made me concerned that they’d missed something important in someone else’s file. This happened in coincidence with me getting a phone call from a midwife at a hospital I wasn’t registered at - the two things happened the same week. I called all the hospitals locally and chased down the issue - it turned out to just be a coding issue with some new software they’d started using recently, and there was no mysterious patient whose results were added to my file, it was just a clerical error that the doctors were following up on. The midwife calling the wrong person was an unrelated accident (well probably also related to a partially trained person trying to use a new computer system, but coincidence not part of the same problem). In the end they just corrected my file and apologised.
So you don’t necessarily have anything to worry about here, this could just be a typo rather than a massive issue of crossed files involving other people.
That’s what I’m hoping maybe it is an error.
You actually don’t know you were given someone else’s results. There are MANY reasons your tests could have come back positive…….youre making a lot of assumptions here
No I was explaining to someone else in another reply. I kinda was tryna get at that in my post but when I called to tell them I was negative and to send the new ones over they was basically saying they mixed the two up. The test goes in depth about my personal health and I knew when I seen it nothing about it sounded like me. My accurate one sounds more like me like I can tell and even things I need to do better on my health like Ph which I knew already
Probably not no. Maybe a complaint to your local medical board but beyond that not much more.
I’m a retired lab tech and the most likely cause was pre analytical error and the sample was not labeled when it was collected. Going forward whenever you have blood drawn or a Pap smear etc collected make sure that the person collecting it labels it in front of you and you double check to make sure it is your name and date of birth on the sample. If it were a blood bank crossmatch sample you could be talking life or death.
And I actually deeply believe that. I didn’t even take a urine test. Just the vaginal which I thought was weird. But it felt like she rushed out right after my test. I can definitely see that happening
Happens more than you realize. My grandson was just tested positive for lead poisoning. The family went through the emotions, he went through the doctors visits. I cried I worried and I spent money buying test for my daughters house to check for lead. Just for the doctors to call and say the test results were wrong a bad test no lead poisoning. Not to mention my other 3 grandkids had to have blood drawn too.
Shit happens, people make mistakes and test aren't always perfect. That doesn't mean you should sue. Your emotions will be tested all through life. It was a mistake, you aren't the 1st nor the last to deal with something like this.if everyone sues there will be no doctors to go to.
I get what ur saying but I don’t also want the doctor to not care. I just dont feel like in the area I’m in anyone would care and it will be swept under the rug. And I just feel bad for the other lady who has this right now and have no idea
I’m a little confused.
You don’t appear to be saying that you were tested because you were presenting w/ STD symptoms. The NAAT test is a specific test for STDs, including Chlamydia. Usually, it’s performed when a patient presents w symptoms
Did the doctor suggest this test as routine part of exam?
I had to do my annual and it’s a vaginal exam each year to just make sure u don’t have stds or sti. I guess in the exam it will show you that. But even if that’s the case whatever lab my test was sent to obviously the two test got swapped.
The only test I get regularly is PAP smear/HPV and that’s cancer screening. No other STDs are tested for regularly in my experience.
That’s why I was asking OP. I think the testing of StDs as part of an annual exam varies by patient, the physician preference, etc. I think younger women of childbearing age might be more likely to get tested as part of an annual exam, but even that varies
INTERESTING!! So maybe they did the wrong thing?? Now I have to look into that cause like I said I was confused. I never went in for that
It's not "obvious" that your test was swapped. It could've been a false positive, as sometimes happens with medical tests. I was once certain that I was pregnant, and TWO tests came back negative. I KNEW I was pregnant, and a third, different kind of test showed positive. Turns out that I had a tubal pregnancy. Surgery was required.
I was explaining in other responses. I was sorta told that. The test I got back had info that didn’t align with my health. Like even wrong BMI on the top. Like it’s not like something I would think they inserting wrong info. Definitely someone else information. I didn’t go in depth on like my convo with the doctor on the phone
OP. I’m sorry you’re being put in the position that you have to defend yourself, shame on the aggressive commenters. I agree a lawyer is overkill and not warranted BUT you were treated poorly and unprofessionally by the Dr office and you definitely should file a complaint. Take a minute to separate your emotions from the facts then write up what you want to say in your complaint. Overstating your opinion could cloud the facts and affect your credibility. You want to clearly state what they did wrong not what you think they did only how you were treated and that you needed to go to urgent care for clarification about your status. This should be your focus. Good luck and I’m so sorry this happened, it could have destroyed your relationship. I worked in a health clinic for years and you certainly were treated poorly. File a simple, concise complaint.
Thank you so much 🙂
You should call a few attorneys. See if they'll take it on contingency.
I'm sorry to hear about this stressful situation; you should insist on getting a copy of your medical records to verify the diagnosis, consider seeking a second opinion from another healthcare professional, and report this mix-up to the clinic or hospital administration to ensure your concerns are addressed properly.
This is a question for a malpractice lawyer.
Honestly, the situation sucks but I would go in the office with your negative test and speak with their team. Explain how distressing this mistake was and that they need to be more careful.
At the end of the day, you were not hurt by this, you do not know the person's name or information so really outside the the mental upset, this isnt a problem.
I would however, send a nice email so there is some kind of paper trail incase something else comes up. But thats just me.
Actually good idea. Cause I can do an email so I have a paper trail basically of my experience
Exactly. It doesnt hurt to start a trail. Who knows if this is a one time thing or something reoccurring. But better to have it somewhere. But I am sorry this happened, I would have been very scared and upset.
On Google the place is rated 1 star. So at this point with all the negative recent reviews I see right now I would not be surprised. The place wasn’t this low rated before
This isn't a mix-up, it's medical malpractice with a side of gaslighting. You were told to ingest medication for a disease you didn't have, based on someone else's results. That's a serious error and huge breach of trust. Don't just get an apology get the clinic's incident report, file a formal complaint with the medical board, and consult a lawyer. This is way beyond "oops, wrong file."
You’re an AI bot.
That’s what I’m saying. Like this person is God knows where and suffering, they need the medication not me; and I been feeling off since
Not only that, but the woman with chlamydia wasn't also told about her diagnosis. At least not if they don't think they mixed up the results.
How do you know that. They know they mixed up the results.
This post shows a lack of understanding. Do you realize that no test is 100% accurate? There is always the possibility of getting a false-positive or false-negative result, it does not mean at all that there was a mix-up.
I’m wasn’t really explaining everything in the post. But I was sorta tryna imply that I already was sorta told it was a mix up. From after when I found out it was wrong. The initial test also went into detail on certain bacteria and etc. It’s definitely someone else results. My test I got now makes more sense like even showing me my water intake and etc.like knowing myself it makes sense. its an annual so it shows all info
You can sue, but your damages are minimal and many lawyers wouldn’t bother taking your case. A clerk in the doctor’s office made a mistake. Bring it to the attention of the office so the poor person with Chlamydia can be notified and treated. They may want to call an attorney because the mistake may have caused them harm.
I get what your saying, cause they definitely probably got my test saying it was negative 🥲
Sue why??? She wasn't harmed.
I said they could sue. Not that they should sue. You can sue the Pope for Bastardy, but you won’t win.
Take the results of both you and your partners new tests to that doctor . After that if he doesn't figure it out on his own figure out who or where his administration office is and take it to them if nothing gets handled maybe contact a lawyer.. you could have left your dude over this is on the edge of medical malpractice so I mean at least give the doctor a chance to fix it by showing him he really is wrong but if he stays stupid a lawyer is the way to go good on you for having faith in your partner
IM SOO HAPPY U UNDERSTAND. My boyfriend literally went through SOOO MUCH and feeling like someone was setting him up. Me even questioning him about if he cheated, I feel disgusted with myself. It made me question if I knew the guy. But I believed in my heart and he was so quick to bring us both to get tested. Everything for him was negative 🥹