At least 1 in 20 adult outpatients misdiagnosed in US every year

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/bmj-al1041414.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 16-Apr-2014

Contact: Stephanie Burns
BMJ-British Medical Journal

At least 1 in 20 adult outpatients misdiagnosed in US every year

Equal to 12 million people nationwide; half of errors potentially harmful, say researchers

At least one in 20 adults is misdiagnosed in outpatient clinics in the US every year, amounting to 12 million people nationwide, and posing a "substantial patient safety risk," finds research published online in BMJ Quality & Safety.

Half of these errors could be potentially harmful, say the authors, who add that their findings should prompt renewed efforts to monitor and curb the numbers of misdiagnoses.

To date, patient safety improvements have largely focused on hospital stays and issues such as infections, falls, and medication errors, say the authors. But most diagnoses are made in outpatient clinics, where patients are looked after by several different healthcare teams and few safety concerns are ever reported.

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