Many Durham residents experience medical care through systems that move quickly: same-day urgent care, ER triage, outpatient imaging centers, and follow-up appointments scheduled weeks later. When time is tight, documentation and escalation decisions matter more.
Common Durham-area scenarios we investigate include:
- Abnormal test results not escalated quickly (for example, imaging findings or lab flags that should have triggered earlier follow-up)
- Handoff breakdowns between clinicians, shifts, or departments
- Diagnostic decision support treated like a final answer rather than a tool that must be verified
- Communication gaps—patients not receiving timely calls, discharge instructions not being followed up, or referrals that never translate into actual care
- AI-assisted workflows (such as risk scoring, imaging review support, or documentation tools) where the output was not cross-checked against symptoms and objective findings
Even when automated systems are involved, the central question is whether the care team met the accepted standard of care for the information available at the time.


