Risk Management Snapshot

Current issues and hot topics
in healthcare risk management.

Tips to Avoid Diagnostic Errors

A patient and physician have a honest discussionDiagnostic errors continue to be a leading contributor to patient harm and malpractice claims. Some simple strategies can help reduce this risk.

Approaching patient care with an open and questioning mind, along with tools such as checklists and patient engagement, can improve diagnostic accuracy. This Medscape article, Three Tips to Avoid Common Diagnostic Errors in Primary Care explores ways to incorporate these techniques into your practice.

Medical Mutual offers practice tips for Results Management: Tracking Diagnostic Tests and Referrals and Strategies for Effective Communication.

This article falls under CLINICAL/PATIENT SAFETY in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) risk domains.

Risks associated with the delivery of care to patients, residents and other health care customers. Clinical risks include: failure to follow evidence based practice, medication errors, hospital acquired conditions (HAC), serious safety events (SSE), health care equity, opportunities to improve safety within the care environments, and others.