Health systems joining forces to address diagnostic errors

GEISINGER, Intermountain Healthcare and 39 other leading health systems and organizations announced last week that they are joining forces to improve the quality of medical diagnoses.

The coalition, called ACT for Better Diagnosis and led by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, will focus on identifying the main causes of diagnostic errors and working toward solutions. It is the largest effort to focus on the issue to date. The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine formed a similar coalition in 2015, but it only included 14 organizations.

“I’m not aware of a broad campaign or a coalition from anyone else that is focused on diagnostic quality and safety, which we believe is the largest quality and safety issue in healthcare,” said Paul Epner, CEO of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

Diagnostic errors are one of the most common and harmful patient-safety issues. Research shows that errors related to diagnosis account for about 10% of patient deaths and roughly 6% to 17% of adverse events in hospitals. The 2015 landmark study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineer- ing and Medicine raised substantial awareness about the issue, but efforts to address it broadly have been limited, Epner said.

The coalition has so far laid out six main obstacles currently standing in the way of improving diagnostic accuracy: Incomplete communication during care transitions; lack of measures and feedback; limited support to help with clinical reasoning; limited time for providers; complexity of the diagnostic process and lack of funding for research.

Each organization participating in the coalition has identified areas they will focus on to address these obstacles.

The members will report their progress and findings to the coalition on a routine

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