Healthcare: Diagnostic Error Analysis and Intervention Report

This report addresses the critical issue of diagnostic errors in the healthcare industry, emphasizing its significant impact on patient safety and outcomes. It begins by defining diagnostic error and its prevalence, citing statistics on the number of patients affected annually in the United States. The report explores the root causes of diagnostic errors, including limited diagnostic resources, poor teamwork, and lack of skilled professionals, highlighting the increased risk in primary care settings. It also discusses the various health conditions prone to diagnostic errors, such as dementia, cancer, and heart attack. The report proposes potential interventions to mitigate these errors, focusing on improved communication, test ordering, and record-keeping. It concludes by emphasizing the need for combined intervention strategies and the potential of checklists to reduce the prevalence of diagnostic errors, supported by relevant references.

Running head: DIAGNOSTIC ERROR
DIAGNOSTIC ERROR
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1DIAGNOSTIC ERROR
Diagnostic error is considered as one of the most crucial safety concern within the
healthcare industry that result in major harm and adverse effect on the patient. In United
States (US), the majority of diagnostic error is identified in autopsy report, which is
responsible for the demise of 40,000-80,000 patient’s annually (Apps.who.int, 2019).
According to The National Academy of Medicine, diagnostic error is defined as the
incapability to institute a precise and accurate explanation towards the health issue of the
patient and also fail to communicate with the patient that result in major diagnostic error
among the health care industry during primary care.
It is estimated that approximately 5% of the US population have suffered due to
diagnostic error. There are various root causes that are responsible for diagnostic error that
ight take place in daily routine practice or in a rare practice unit. Diagnostic error majorly
takes place when a healthcare professional has missed to conduct any diagnosis or has
wrongly or inappropriately conducted a wrong diagnosis that has resulted in an adverse event
(Singh et al., 2017). The diagnostic error can take place within the hospital setting but it is
very crucial for the healthcare provider to identify and recognize the diagnostic error within
the primary care, as probability of diagnostic error in the primary care is high as compared to
other units.
Delay in identifying or treating the condition of diagnostic error is common as
approximately 7% of the non-standard test reports are not even communicated to the patients
that can result in delayed diagnosis and treatment, hence, increasing the probability of
diagnostic error (Govindarajan, 2017). The major causes of diagnostic error are limited
diagnostic test with limited availability, quality and scope, poor teamwork, lack of competent
or skilled healthcare professionals, limited access of healthcare amenities, no effective
sharing of therapeutic information, lack of efficient follow-up methodology, delay in
consultation and reporting. There are various health condition that is more prone or are

2DIAGNOSTIC ERROR
involved in the diagnostic error, mainly within the high-income nations. Diagnostic error is
most prevalent during primary care of the patients who are suffering from dementia, cancer,
meningitis, anaemia, heart attack, asthma, human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) and shock
among elder population (Berner, 2017).
There are various potential intervention that can be used or practiced to reduce the
complication of diagnostic error and can further focus on improving the skill and knowledge
of the healthcare provider who are involved in addressing and treating a patient. Intervention
include effective communication, test ordering method and record keeping. It is believed that
one sole intervention cannot be effective in reducing the burden of diagnostic error and
therefore require combined intervention procedure, which will help the healthcare provider to
reduce the prevalence rate of diagnostic error in US (Alam et al., 2017). A separate checklist
can be generated that will help the healthcare provider in preventing the condition of
diagnostic error. The checklist can prepared for different set of health issues that has high
incidence and prevalence rate with high chances of diagnostic error.

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References
Alam, R., Cheraghi-Sohi, S., Panagioti, M., Esmail, A., Campbell, S., & Panagopoulou, E.
(2017). Managing diagnostic uncertainty in primary care: a systematic critical review.
BMC family practice, 18(1), 79
Berner, E. S. (2017). Diagnostic Error in Medicine: Implications for Clinical Laboratory
Scientists. Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science, 47(6), 649-656.
Govindarajan, R. (2017). The Implication of Diagnostic Errors. CONTINUUM: Lifelong
Learning in Neurology, 23(5), 1458-1466.
Singh, H., Schiff, G. D., Graber, M. L., Onakpoya, I., & Thompson, M. J. (2017). The global
burden of diagnostic errors in primary care. BMJ Qual Saf, 26(6), 484-494.
Apps.who.int. (2019). Diagnostic Error. Retrieved 31 July 2019, from
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/252410/9789241511636-eng.pdf