One night, a woman is examined in the emergency department complaining of vertigo. Her physician orders a CT scan, and when the tests come back negative, he diagnoses her with a benign inner ear condition and sends her home. He never sees her again. What he never learns is that her dizziness was far from […]
misdiagnosis
Common Symptoms, Uncommon Causes: Reducing Misdiagnosis on the Front Lines
Posted by | Preventing Patient HarmIn 2013, a 52-year-old man went to an emergency department complaining of dizziness. Physicians evaluated him, decided that it was a benign condition — as it usually is — and sent him home. Days later, it became apparent that this was no harmless event. He suffered a significant stroke, with permanent disability as the result. […]
Ruling out the wrong diagnosis
Posted by | Preventing Patient HarmAlthough misdiagnosis may kill up to 80,000 annually—more people each year than firearms and motor vehicle accidents combined—you won’t find it on the list of the country’s leading causes of death. Most Americans don’t realize how frequently well-meaning medical providers get it wrong. Just last year Johns Hopkins researchers found that one in 12 ICU patients […]