TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Chapter 8. Diagnostic Errors A1 - Schiff, Gordon D. A1 - Graber, Mark L. A2 - McKean, Sylvia C. A2 - Ross, John J. A2 - Dressler, Daniel D. A2 - Brotman, Daniel J. A2 - Ginsberg, Jeffrey S. PY - 2012 T2 - Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine AB - A diagnostic error is any mistake or failure in the diagnostic process leading to a misdiagnosis, a missed diagnosis, or a delayed diagnosis. This is an operational definition that includes any failures in the process of care, including timely access in eliciting or interpreting symptoms, signs, or laboratory results; formulating and weighing differential diagnosis; or lack of timely follow-up and specialty referral and evaluation. A diagnostic error is a construct that is usually based on reference to a subsequent test, clinical outcome, consultant's diagnosis, or autopsy—gold standards that are themselves often imperfect or unavailable. Errors in diagnosis-related processes are ubiquitous, ranging from a trivial failure to ask an “insignificant” historical question to overlooking minor lab abnormalities, to switching specimens between two patients, to more serious errors in interpretation of data, which may or may not have adverse clinical consequences in terms of labeling a patient with an erroneous diagnosis or impacting clinical actions or outcomes. Detecting diagnostic errors is critical to correction of the ongoing care for a current patient, as well as for learning how to avoid similar errors in the future. SN - PB - The McGraw-Hill Companies CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/10/14 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=56191429 ER -