Pediatric Offices Fail to Act on 1 in 10 Abnormal Test Results

Diagnostic errors (DEs) and missed opportunity for diagnosis (MOD), including the failure to act on abnormal laboratory test results in a timely manner, commonly occur in pediatric primary care offices, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in Academic Pediatrics. Approximately one in 10 abnormal laboratory results in pediatric primary care offices are not acted on appropriately or in a timely manner. "While studies on reducing ambulatory diagnostic breakdowns in adults have emerged, little progress has been made in understanding or reducing ambulatory pediatric DEs," write the authors led by Michael Rinke, M.D., Ph.D., from Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, N.Y. "Knowing that these DEs and MODs lead to long-term morbidity, it is crucial to pursue strategies to reduce their incidence." "Practices that enrolled onto a quality improvement project to reduce DEs are likely not representative of all practices, given their expressed interest in DE improvement and their baseline characteristics." –Michael Rinke, M.D., Ph.D. Twenty-five primary care pediatric practices, participating in a national quality improvement collaborative (RedDE: Reducing Diagnostic Errors in Pediatric Primary Care), were randomized to collect five months of retrospective data (February through June 2015) on DEs or MODs regarding abnormal laboratory values, as well […]