One in 14 Hospitalized Patients Face Harmful Diagnostic Errors

THURSDAY, Oct. 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Harmful diagnostic errors (DEs) occur in an estimated one of every 14 hospitalized general medicine patients, according to a study published online Oct. 1 in BMJ Quality & Safety.

Anuj K. Dalal, M.D., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues assessed the prevalence of harmful DEs among hospitalized patients. The analysis included electronic medical record reviews for a random sampling of 675 patients with a transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU), death within 90 days, complex clinical events, and none of the high-risk criteria.

The researchers found that population estimates of harmful, preventable, and severely harmful DEs were 7.2 percent for ICU transfers, 6.1 percent for death within 90 days, and 1.1 percent for complex clinical events. More than six in 10 harmful DEs were characterized as delays (61.9 percent). In high-risk cases, severely harmful DEs were frequent (55.1 percent). Process failures in assessment, diagnostic testing, subspecialty consultation, patient experience, and history were significantly associated with harmful DEs.

“Patient safety research and institutional quality and safety programs should consider structured case reviews and novel approaches for improving detection of adverse DEs for hospitalized patients,” the authors write.

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