Medscape October 22, 2024
Diagnostic errors are common in hospitals and are largely preventable, according to a new observational study led by Anuj K. Dalal, MD, from the Division of General Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, published in BMJ Quality & Safety.
Dalal and his colleagues found that 1 in 14 general medicine patients (7%) suffer harm due to diagnostic errors, and up to 85% of these cases could be prevented.
Few Studies on Diagnostic Errors
The study found that adverse event surveillance in hospital underestimated the prevalence of harmful diagnostic errors.
“It is difficult to quantify and characterize diagnostic errors, which have been studied less than medication errors,” explained Micaela La Regina, MD, an internist...
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