Right diagnosis, right treatment: SAFER PRACTICES

Studies have shown that as many as one in four consultations in primary and ambulatory care result in harm to patients from clinical errors (Auraaen et al, 2018). Until recently, the emphasis has been on identifying and reducing the risk of errors in the treatment of patients, even though errors in diagnosis are twice as common as treatment errors and result in greater harm to patients. This is mainly because it is easier to identify the cause of treatment errors and to develop strategies and interventions to either prevent or detect these errors. Making a diagnosis is a complex process and the causes of errors are many and varied. Introducing patient safety-focused interventions into the diagnostic process is, therefore, much more challenging. Similarly, considerable time is devoted to training both students and staff in how to prevent and detect treatment errors, whereas little, if any, teaching is delivered in either undergraduate or postgraduate education on applied diagnostic reasoning and how to prevent and detect diagnostic errors. However, since 80% of diagnostic errors are considered to be preventable, there is a significant opportunity to reduce the risk of harm to patients by introducing measures to prevent and detect diagnostic errors.