TY - JOUR
T1 - Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients
T2 - A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country
AU - Neshati, Hashem
AU - Sheybani, Fereshte
AU - Naderi, Hamidreza
AU - Sarvghad, Mohamadreza
AU - Soltani, Ahmad Khalifeh
AU - Efterkharpoor, Elaheh
AU - Nooghabi, Mehdi Jabbari
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Hashem Neshati et al.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Although there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed diagnosis of TB can affect patients and community adversely. Our aim in the present study was at evaluating the type of diagnostic errors in TB patients from symptom onset to diagnosis. This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in three university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. We showed a long delay in diagnosing TB that is mostly related to the time from first medical visit to diagnosis. Errors in the diagnostic process were identified in 97.5% of patients. The most common type of error in diagnosing TB was failure in hypothesis generation (72%), followed by history taking and physical examination. In conclusion, it seems likely that efforts to improve public awareness of and health literacy for TB, to coordinate the referral and follow-up systems of patients, and to improve physicians' skills in history taking and physical examination and clinical reasoning will result in reduced delay in diagnosis of TB and, perhaps, improved patient safety and community health.
AB - Although there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed diagnosis of TB can affect patients and community adversely. Our aim in the present study was at evaluating the type of diagnostic errors in TB patients from symptom onset to diagnosis. This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in three university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. We showed a long delay in diagnosing TB that is mostly related to the time from first medical visit to diagnosis. Errors in the diagnostic process were identified in 97.5% of patients. The most common type of error in diagnosing TB was failure in hypothesis generation (72%), followed by history taking and physical examination. In conclusion, it seems likely that efforts to improve public awareness of and health literacy for TB, to coordinate the referral and follow-up systems of patients, and to improve physicians' skills in history taking and physical examination and clinical reasoning will result in reduced delay in diagnosis of TB and, perhaps, improved patient safety and community health.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057434247&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1975931
DO - https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1975931
M3 - Article
C2 - 30538752
SN - 1687-9805
VL - 2018
JO - Journal of Environmental and Public Health
JF - Journal of Environmental and Public Health
M1 - 1975931
ER -