pathologist mistakes

Physicians are loath to police their own and I would be surprised if the doctor is convicted of any serious charge - especially since pathology is such a subjective discipline. Back in the day, prior to the high profile of the internet, he probably wouldn't even lose his license. He still may end up practicing medicine.

This occurred at the VA hospital and he has several manslaughter charges against him. So, no, he is not going to continue to practice. Amazing that we continue to hear of dire situations in our VA system. Terrible that we allow that.

I am a pathologist so I am pretty intimately familiar with this problem and the mechanisms of the medical system in dealing with mistakes. The two VA hospitals where I worked during my training were both excellent hospitals. Both were associated with university systems. I imagine that the quality of VA hospitals not associated with universities may be spotty but it is truly amazing that a pathologist could make "thousands of errors, including failing to diagnose many cancers". Normally the feed-back system would catch this even if this pathologist worked alone in a small hospital, as I did. I suppose a pathologist could cover up some mistakes but many patients get second opinions and I would have thought especially if someone with cancer was misdiagnosed it would soon come to light. And the surgeons and other physicians generally have a pretty good grasp on whether a person has cancer or not. I know that in the 110 bed hospital where I spent most of my career I would have been out the door long before I could make more than a few such errors. I think this case is a real indictment of the hospital and medical staff where this doctor worked.