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Quality Assessment and Management: An Overview of Concordance and Discordance Rates Between Clinical and Autopsy Diagnoses

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Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare and Medical Devices (AHFE 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 957))

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Abstract

Autopsy diagnoses have traditionally been used as the “Gold Standard” for determining the cause of death. The purpose of this study was to use autopsy to determine the rate of concordance and discordance between clinical diagnoses and post-mortem findings in patients admitted to the hospitals of the Saskatoon Health Region. A retrospective record review of the medical and autopsy charts was carried out by three independent observers for all the deceased adult in-patients admitted during 2006 to 2008. In accordance with selection criteria, 102 (59 males; 43 females) cases were assessed. The concordance rate between clinical and autopsy diagnosis was found to be 86.3%. The discordance rate was 12.7% and in 1.0% was inconclusive. We encourage residents and physicians to continue using autopsy as an important tool to extend our understanding of disease processes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon Health Region, 103 Hospital Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0W8, Canada

    Jawahar (Jay) Kalra

  2. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Jawahar (Jay) Kalra & Daniel Markewich

  3. Northern Medical Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Patrick Seitzinger

Authors
  1. Jawahar (Jay) Kalra
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  2. Daniel Markewich
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  3. Patrick Seitzinger
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Correspondence to Jawahar (Jay) Kalra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Veterans Affairs - Center for Applied Systems Engineering, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Nancy J. Lightner

  2. Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Royal University Hospital, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Jay Kalra

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Kalra, J.(., Markewich, D., Seitzinger, P. (2020). Quality Assessment and Management: An Overview of Concordance and Discordance Rates Between Clinical and Autopsy Diagnoses. In: Lightner, N., Kalra, J. (eds) Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare and Medical Devices. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 957. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20451-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20451-8_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20450-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20451-8

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