HEALTH CARE REFORM ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION Diagnostic Error in Medicine Analysis of 583 Physician-Reported Errors (original) (raw)

Background: Missed or delayed diagnoses are a com-mon but understudied area in patient safety research. To better understand the types, causes, and prevention of such errors, we surveyed clinicians to solicit perceived cases of missed and delayed diagnoses. Methods: A 6-item written survey was administered at 20 grand rounds presentations across the United States and by mail at 2 collaborating institutions. Respondents were asked to report 3 cases of diagnostic errors and to describe their perceived causes, seriousness, and frequency. Results: A total of 669 cases were reported by 310 clini-cians from 22 institutions. After cases without diagnostic errors or lacking sufficient details were excluded, 583 re-mained. Of these, 162 errors (28%) were rated as major,