In our region, it’s common for patients to move between urgent care, ER visits, primary care, and specialty clinics—sometimes across different systems and appointment schedules. A diagnostic delay claim often hinges on whether the right clinician acted on the right information at the right time.
For example, a patient might:
- Be evaluated for symptoms after a long day of commuting along major corridors and receive discharge instructions—then later learn that imaging or lab results were abnormal.
- Get told to “follow up with your doctor” but face delays securing the next appointment.
- Have abnormal findings documented, but not clearly communicated, not tracked, or not escalated when symptoms didn’t improve.
- Return for repeat visits because symptoms worsen—yet the clinical workup doesn’t broaden as expected.
The practical reality: diagnosis isn’t just about what was wrong—it’s about what should have been done next. In Colorado Springs, those “next steps” frequently live in the follow-up process.


