What Are the Factors That Contribute to Diagnostic Errors?

What Are the Factors That Contribute to Diagnostic Errors?

Diagnostic errors created by illegible handwriting and other causes can be avoided with the support of a reliable medical transcription service provider.

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918-221-7809

Preventable medication errors affect more than 1.5 million Americans annually. These errors are caused

by unclear abbreviations and doses, and

illegible

physician

handwriting. Therefore a plea has been made for doctors to use digital notes and prescriptions to prevent these errors. This problem can be resolved with the help of a reliable provider of medical transcription services who have expert transcriptionists to convert physicians’ notes into error-free reports. Another issue related to doctors is misdiagnosis or wrong diagnosis.

According to a study by BMJ Quality and Safety, medical misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose occur more often than some people may think. Around 12 million people in the United Sates, who are treated in outpatient clinics and emergency rooms are victims of this type of medical negligence each year. Researchers also reported that approximately half of these patients are seriously injured as a result of misdiagnosis. The following are the causes for misdiagnosis: •

Over confidence: Confidence is a trait that physicians should have but over confidence can lead to misdiagnosis and errors. Misdiagnosis is not due to lack of intelligence but may be because of a broken medical system along with the fact that doctors are folks with cognitive blind spots common to humans. New technology like EHR and the highly demanding productivity business model have affected the patient doctor relationship. Doctors are forced to spend more time on documentation tasks rather than on building a rapport with their patients. The problem is that when doctors fail to listen to the patient’s story carefully, it could lead to a wrong diagnosis.

•

Personal biases and errors: When patients come with an illness, sometimes doctors misdiagnose a serious health condition as a minor one. A 65-year-old woman with vague abdominal pain, on and off diarrhoea, mucous in her stools and bloating made frequent visits to the hospital. Since she did not have weight loss or fever, the doctor felt there was no serious health issue. In two weeks, she returned and the doctor prescribed ultrasound of her gallbladder and a colonoscopy, as well as standard blood tests and the report came out normal. In a month she again returned, and she had lost weight and this time she consulted other physicians who found that she was suffering from ovarian cancer. This shows that the first doctor’s bias kept him or her from looking into further issues.

Errors such as this occur when physicians quickly fixate on a single diagnosis without consideration of other possibilities.

•

VIP Syndrome and diagnosis momentum: All doctors try to develop a bond with the patient so that they can provide a good patient experience. The doctors also think about the patient’s discomfort and expenses, especially if the patient is

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a celebrity or an important person. The doctor is intimidated or reluctant to recommend things which may be unpleasant for their patient. This is called VIP Syndrome, and this leads to either too much treatment or under treatment due to cognitive errors.

Diagnosis can be elusive but is often obvious if the patients are given enough time to let their story unfold in an unhurried and nonjudgmental manner. However, misdiagnosis unfortunately occurs. An ideal remedy to this problem is seeking the help of a reliable medical transcription company that can transcribe physicians’ dictation into errorfree records. With the help of reliable medical transcription service, physicians can easily dictate their notes using a digital recorder or toll-free recorder. Medical transcriptionists are skilled listeners who listen to the recordings and format the medical record. Once the medical record is ready, with the help of HL7 interface the medical records are uploaded.

HL7 provides the framework for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information. It also provides an encrypted and secure means of transferring files. This prevents physicians from preparing illegible or poor medical records and eases the process of medical documentation.

www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com

918-221-7809