Background: Diagnostic errors (DEs), or the failure to accurately identify or provide timely explanations of a patient’s health problem, are a significant source of patient harm. DEs occur in up to 23% of adult inpatients who transfer to intensive care units (ICU) or die. Few studies have examined how clinician team composition impacts DE risk. [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors (DEs), or the failure to accurately identify or provide timely explanations of a patient’s health problem, are a significant source of patient harm. DEs occur in up to 23% of adult inpatients who transfer to intensive care units (ICU) or die. Few studies have examined how clinician team composition impacts DE risk. [...]

Case Presentation: A 40-year-old woman with a history of bipolar disorder and cannabis use disorder presented with four days of headache, dizziness, and vomiting. Initial examination revealed no focal neurological deficits except inconsistent orientation to time and cognitive slowing. She was treated symptomatically and planned for discharge. As she attempted to leave the ED, she [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors (DE) are common in patients who die or go to the ICU and are caused by gaps in diagnostic processes. Few data describe whether this observation holds true among patients with sepsis, a disease that progresses quickly and requires a range of clinical information to diagnose correctly. The objective of our study [...]

Background: Diagnostic error may occur in up to 5% of all adult hospitalizations, leading to prolonged length of stay, higher cost, and significant morbidity and mortality. Improving diagnostic safety requires measurement, analysis, and learning accelerated by dissemination. While safety is at the forefront of hospital priorities, organizational readiness to address diagnostic safety lacks consistent deployment [...]

Background: According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, 523 million (95% UI: 497 to 550 million) people worldwide had cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in 2019, resulting in a significant increase in DALYs and years of life lost, mostly due to ischemic heart disease. There are various accurate and economical gold standard tests to identify [...]

Background: Sepsis, a dysregulated host immune response to infection leading to life-threatening organ dysfunction[1], is a common, fast-moving condition, and the leading cause of in-hospital death. Most cases develop in the community and present to Emergency Departments (ED)[2], where urgent action is required to prevent resultant morbidity and mortality[3]. However, the presentation of sepsis is [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors frequently represent significant adverse events that can occur in any medical setting, particularly in rushed handovers and constrained timing. Cases that result in emergency hospitalization at the time of the initial outpatient visit are more likely to have complex or serious patient conditions and more detrimental diagnostic errors. Our study investigated diagnostic [...]

Background: Diagnostic error is a major threat to the safety of hospitalized patients, affecting as many as 1 in 4 patients and leading to 7% of inpatient deaths. However, diagnostic error remains difficult to identify and measure, particularly in the hospital setting, where determination of an error relies on medical record review. Measurement difficulty also [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors (DE) are common in hospitalized patients, especially those with an unintended escalation of care, and cause substantial harm. However, individual hospitals currently lack methods to analyze local diagnostic process failure patterns to identify targets for quality improvement efforts. Purpose: The AHRQ funded UPSIDE study identified key diagnostic process failures across a national [...]