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Diagnostic Error

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Patient Safety

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Abstract

Diagnostic errors, defined as inaccurate or delayed diagnoses, are common, costly and have potentially catastrophic consequences for patient care. As the two presented cases illustrate, diagnosis is a complex process involving both cognitive and system-related sources of error. Defining and identifying diagnostic error in practice presents its own set of challenges, as does determining the contributing factors, such as failures in follow-up, communication and cognitive bias. Currently, there are many different approaches to reducing diagnostic error through system improvement. These approaches involve methods for identifying, classifying, and analyzing errors which will suggest various interventions geared towards error reduction and measuring improvement.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Adam Cohen & Geeta Singhal

  2. Center for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Satid Thammasitboon

  3. Sepsis Alliance, San Diego, CA, USA

    Paul Epner

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  1. Adam Cohen
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  2. Satid Thammasitboon
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  3. Geeta Singhal
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  4. Paul Epner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt Park Health, Chicago, IL, USA

    Abha Agrawal

  2. Primary Care Internist/Geriatrician, University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jay Bhatt

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Cohen, A., Thammasitboon, S., Singhal, G., Epner, P. (2023). Diagnostic Error. In: Agrawal, A., Bhatt, J. (eds) Patient Safety. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35933-0_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35933-0_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-35932-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-35933-0

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