Developing checklists to prevent diagnostic error in Emergency Room settings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Checklists have been shown to improve performance of complex, error-prone processes. To develop a checklist with potential to reduce the likelihood of diagnostic error for patients presenting to the Emergency Room (ER) with undiagnosed conditions.

Methods

Participants included 15 staff ER physicians working in two large academic centers. A rapid cycle design and evaluation process was used to develop a general checklist for high-risk situations vulnerable to diagnostic error. Physicians used the general checklists and a set of symptom-specific checklists for a period of 2 months. We conducted a mixed methods evaluation that included interviews regarding user perceptions and quantitative assessment of resource utilization before and after checklist use.

Results<

SUBMITTER: Graber ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4799784 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature