TY - JOUR
T1 - Primary care pediatricians' interest in diagnostic error reduction
AU - Rinke, Michael L.
AU - Singh, Hardeep
AU - Ruberman, Sarah
AU - Adelman, Jason
AU - Choi, Steven J.
AU - O'Donnell, Heather
AU - Stein, Ruth E.K.
AU - Brady, Tammy M.
AU - Heo, Moonseong
AU - Lehmann, Christoph U.
AU - Kairys, Steven
AU - Rice-Conboy, Elizabeth
AU - Theissen, Keri
AU - Bundy, David G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by De Gruyter.
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - Diagnostic errors causing harm in children are understudied, resulting in a knowledge gap regarding pediatricians' interest in reducing their incidence. Methods: Electronic survey of general pediatricians focusing on diagnostic error incidence, errors they were interested in trying to improve, and errors reduced by their electronic health record (EHR). Results: Of 300 contacted pediatricians, 77 (26%) responded, 58 (19%) served ambulatory patients, and 48 (16%) completed the entire questionnaire. Of these 48, 17 (35%) reported making a diagnostic error at least monthly, and 16 (33%) reported making a diagnostic error resulting in an adverse event at least annually. Pediatricians were "most" interested in "trying to improve" missed diagnosis of hypertension (17%), delayed diagnosis due to missed subspecialty referral (15%), and errors associated with delayed follow-up of abnormal laboratory values (13%). Among the 44 pediatricians with an EHR, 16 (36%) said it reduced the likelihood of missing obesity and 14 (32%) said it reduced the likelihood of missing hypertension. Also, 15 (34%) said it helped avoid delays in follow-up of abnormal laboratory values. A third (36%) reported no help in diagnostic error reduction from their EHR. Conclusions: Pediatricians self-report an appreciable number of diagnostic errors and were most interested in preventing high frequency, non-life-threatening errors. There exists a need to leverage EHRs to support error reduction efforts.
AB - Diagnostic errors causing harm in children are understudied, resulting in a knowledge gap regarding pediatricians' interest in reducing their incidence. Methods: Electronic survey of general pediatricians focusing on diagnostic error incidence, errors they were interested in trying to improve, and errors reduced by their electronic health record (EHR). Results: Of 300 contacted pediatricians, 77 (26%) responded, 58 (19%) served ambulatory patients, and 48 (16%) completed the entire questionnaire. Of these 48, 17 (35%) reported making a diagnostic error at least monthly, and 16 (33%) reported making a diagnostic error resulting in an adverse event at least annually. Pediatricians were "most" interested in "trying to improve" missed diagnosis of hypertension (17%), delayed diagnosis due to missed subspecialty referral (15%), and errors associated with delayed follow-up of abnormal laboratory values (13%). Among the 44 pediatricians with an EHR, 16 (36%) said it reduced the likelihood of missing obesity and 14 (32%) said it reduced the likelihood of missing hypertension. Also, 15 (34%) said it helped avoid delays in follow-up of abnormal laboratory values. A third (36%) reported no help in diagnostic error reduction from their EHR. Conclusions: Pediatricians self-report an appreciable number of diagnostic errors and were most interested in preventing high frequency, non-life-threatening errors. There exists a need to leverage EHRs to support error reduction efforts.
KW - Diagnostic error
KW - pediatrics
KW - primary care
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U2 - 10.1515/dx-2015-0033
DO - 10.1515/dx-2015-0033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019634040
SN - 2194-8011
VL - 3
SP - 65
EP - 69
JO - Diagnosis
JF - Diagnosis
IS - 2
ER -