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Recognizing Excellence in Diagnosis: Recommended Practices for Hospitals.

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Washington, DC: Leapfrog Group; July 2022.

Diagnostic safety is beginning to be established as a systemic, rather than solely an individual performance issue. This report recommends strategies that support systemic work toward diagnostic excellence and selected implementation stories that illustrate success. It is a part of a larger initiative devoted to the improvement of organizational and team activities in tandem with clinical processes to minimize the impact of human error on diagnosis.

An evolution of reporting: identifying the missing link.

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Harsini S, Tofighi S, Eibschutz L, et al. Diagnostics (Basel). 2022;12:1761.

Incomplete or delayed communication of imaging results can result in harm to the patient and have legal ramifications for the providers involved. This commentary presents a closed-loop communication model for the ordering clinician and radiologist. The model suggests the ordering clinician categorize the radiology report as “concordant” or “discordant”, and if discordant, provide an explanation.

The Uneven Burden of Maternal Mortality in the U.S.

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NIHCM Foundation. Washington DC: National Institute for Health Care Management. August 2, 2022.

Preventable maternal morbidity is an ongoing challenge in the United States. This infographic shares general data and statistics that demonstrate the presence of racial disparities in maternal care that are linked to structural racism. The resource highlights several avenues for improvement such as diversification of the perinatal staffing and increased access to telehealth.

Concordance with urgent referral guidelines in patients presenting with any of six ‘alarm’ features of possible cancer: a retrospective cohort study using linked primary care records.

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Wiering B, Lyratzopoulos G, Hamilton W, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;31:579-589.

Delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. This retrospective study linking data reflecting primary and secondary care as well as cancer registry data found that only 40% of patients presenting with common possible cancer features received an urgent referral to specialist care within 14 days. Findings revealed that a significant number of these patients developed cancer within one year.

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Special Statement: Cognitive bias and medical error in obstetrics-challenges and opportunities.

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Atallah F, Hamm RF, Davidson CM, et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2022;227:B2-B10.

The reduction of cognitive bias is generating increased interest as a diagnostic error reduction strategy. This statement introduces the concept of cognitive bias and discusses methods to manage the presence of bias in obstetrics such as debiasing training and teamwork.

Patient Safety in the Ambulatory Care Setting

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August 5, 2022

The focus on patient safety in the ambulatory setting was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and appropriately shifting priorities to responding to the pandemic. This piece explores some of the core themes of patient safety in the ambulatory setting, including diagnostic safety and diagnostic errors. Ways to enhance patient safety in the ambulatory care setting and next steps in ambulatory care safety are addressed.

How safe are paediatric emergency departments? A national prospective cohort study.

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Plint AC, Newton AS, Stang A, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2022;Epub Jul 19.

While adverse events (AE) in pediatric emergency departments are rare, the majority are considered preventable. This study reports on the proportion of pediatric patients experiencing an AE within 21 days of an emergency department visit, whether the AE may have been preventable, and the type of AE (e.g., management, diagnostic). Results show 3% of children experienced at least one AE, most of which were preventable.

Pediatric musculoskeletal radiographs: anatomy and fractures prone to diagnostic error among emergency physicians.

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Li W, Stimec J, Camp M, et al. J Emerg Med. 2022;62:524-533.

While pediatric musculoskeletal radiograph misinterpretations are rare, it is important to know what features of the image area are associated with false-positive or false-negative diagnoses. In this study, pediatric emergency medicine physicians were asked to interpret radiographs with and without known fractures. False-positive diagnosis (i.e., a fracture was identified when there was none) were reviewed by an expert panel to identify the location and anatomy most prone to misdiagnosis.

Diagnostic Excellence.

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JAMA. 2021-2022.

Diagnostic excellence achievement is becoming a primary focus in health care. This article series covers diagnosis as it relates to the Institute of Medicine quality domains, clinical challenges, and priorities for improvement across the system.

Undiagnosed and rare diseases in critical care: the role of diagnostic access.

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Bordini BJ. Crit Care Clin. 2022;38:159-171.

Rare diseases can present diagnostic challenges to clinicians. This article discusses how cognitive biases can impede diagnosis of rare conditions and strategies to improve diagnostic safety in critical care, such as diagnostic timeouts.

Measure Dx: A Resource to Identify, Analyze, and Learn from Diagnostic Safety Events.

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Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2022. AHRQ Publication No. 22-0038.

Diagnostic improvement continues to gain focus as a goal in health care. The Measure Dx tool provides teams with guidance and strategies to detect and learn from diagnostic errors in their organizations. It includes a checklist to gauge readiness for implementation, measurement strategies, and recommendations for analyzing data and translating findings into front line care.

Without question.

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Liebowitz J. N Engl J Med. 2022;386:2456-2457.

Diagnostic errors caused by premature closure and anchoring bias occur when clinicians rely on initial diagnosis despite receiving subsequent information to the contrary. This commentary encourages clinicians to be aware of their cognitive biases during the diagnosis process.

Narrowing the mindware gap in medicine.

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Croskerry P. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022;9:176-183.

In dual process thinking, Type 1 decisions are made rapidly, but can result in diagnostic error. Type 2 processing is slower and more deliberate, and typically where novice clinicians begin practice. This article proposes adaptive expertise to improve novices’ processing. Incorporating six strategies (rationality, critical thinking, metacognitive processes, lateral thinking, medical humanities, distributed cognition) in medical education may improve learners’ processing and reduce diagnostic errors.

Improving Diagnosis in Medicine Act of 2022.

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117th Congress 2d Session. June 21, 2022.

Strengthening diagnostic error research and training can lead to sustained diagnostic improvement. Expanding upon legislation introduced in 2020, the “Improving Diagnosis in Medicine Act of 2022” would establish research centers of diagnostic excellence, an interagency council on improving diagnosis in healthcare, and fellowship and training grants in diagnostic safety, as well as convene an expert panel on diagnostic error measurement and data collection and prioritize stakeholder engagement across all activities.

Analysis of variation between diagnosis at admission vs discharge and clinical outcomes among adults with possible bacteremia.

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Dregmans E, Kaal AG, Meziyerh S, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5:e2218172.

Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing can result in patient harm and costly antibiotic-resistant infections. Health record review of 1,477 patients admitted from the emergency department for suspected bacteremia infection revealed that 11.6% were misdiagnosed at infection site, and 3.1% did not have any infection. Misdiagnosis was not associated with worse short-term clinical outcomes but was associated with potentially inappropriate broad-spectrum antibiotic use.

Factors associated with malpractice claim payout: an analysis of closed emergency department claims.

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Gupta K, Szymonifka J, Rivadeneira NA, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2022;Epub May 28.

Analysis of closed malpractice claims can be used to identify potential safety hazards in a variety of clinical settings. This analysis of closed emergency department malpractice claims indicates that diagnostic errors dominate, and clinical judgment and documentation categories continue to be associated with a higher likelihood of payout. Subcategories and contributing factors are also discussed.

Multiple Failures in Test Results Follow-up for a Patient Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer at the Hampton VA Medical Center in Virginia.

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Washington, DC: VA Office of the Inspector General; June 28, 2022. Report No 21-03349-186.

Cancer test communication failures can contribute to physical, emotional, and financial patient harm. This report examines missed opportunities made by multiple clinicians involved in the care of a patient with prostate cancer who then died from metastasized disease Seven recommendations are included for improving abnormal test result communication and error management at the facility.

Missing a Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke in a Patient with a History of Seizures.

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July 8, 2022

A 58-year-old man with a past medical history of seizures presented to the emergency department (ED) with acute onset of left gaze deviation, expressive aphasia, and right-sided hemiparesis. The patient was evaluated by the general neurology team in the ED, who suspected an acute ischemic stroke and requested an evaluation by the stroke neurology team but did not activate a stroke alert. The stroke team concluded that the patient had suffered a focal seizure prior to arrival and had postictal deficits.

Multilevel factors associated with time to biopsy after abnormal screening mammography results by race and ethnicity.

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Lawson MB, Bissell MCS, Miglioretti DL, et al. JAMA Oncol. 2022;Epub Jun 23.

Delays in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment can threaten patient safety. This study analyzed data from a large US breast cancer screening consortium to evaluate differences in diagnostic follow-up among racial and ethnic groups. Findings indicate that Black women were most likely to experience diagnostic delays (between receipt of abnormal screening result to biopsy) after adjusting for individual-, neighborhood-, and health care-level factor, emphasizing the need to address the potential for systemic racism in healthcare.

Mandating limits on workload, duty, and speed in radiology.

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Alexander R, Waite S, Bruno MA, et al. Radiology. 2022:212631.

To reduce medical errors caused by fatigue, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) adopted duty hour restrictions for ACGME-accredited residency programs; however, other healthcare fields have not yet done so. This review presents the limited existing evidence for regulating duty hours for radiologists and proposes that additional research needs to be completed before implementing restrictions.

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