“Diagnostic errors – inaccurate or delayed diagnoses – persist throughout all care settings and harm an unacceptable number of patients. . .Most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences,” a new 346-page report from the National Academy of Medicine reported.  About 12 million adults a year in the U.S. are subjected to diagnostic errors when they go to the doctor, and diagnostic mistakes play a part in the deaths of more than 71,000 hospitalized patients in this country each year.  

Despite how widespread these mistakes are and despite the damage they can cause, misdiagnosis has gotten relatively little attention in health care, researchers concluded.  Are diagnostic mistakes just an unavoidable by-product of a complex health care system? No, the analysts wrote, “Improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but it also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative.”

The report defines diagnostic error as having one or both of two parts.  The first one is “the failure to establish an accurate and timely explanation of the patient’s health problem(s).”  The second part points out an equally big issue. It is the failure to “communicate that explanation to the patient.”

Said another way, it is not good enough for medical records patients may never see to note an accurate diagnosis.  If they never hear about it, they are unlikely to get the care they need.

What can you do?  For checklists to help you make sure that you give your doctors the best information you have to help them diagnose you correctly, see “Resources for Improving Communication” on the page for the report titled “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care” found at http://iom.nationalacademies.org/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2015/Improving-Diagnosis/DiagnosticError_Toolkit.pdf. (Or, search on [IOM Reports], select “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care,” and proceed as above.)

A few of the dozens of suggestions are:

• Tell all doctors and nurses the same story about your illness. (In other words, don’t start changing your explanation because you’re bored with repeating the same things over and over).
• Be prepared to share your history with the illness, including:
  • Results of tests you’ve already had
  • How your condition has changed over time
  • What treatments you’ve had for it already, and whether they helped with your problem (as well as whether they created troublesome side effects)
• Learn about your illness; tests and treatments you’ve had; and drugs prescribed for you, including both brand names and generic names, the reason you are taking each, how much you are supposed to take and how often, common side effects of each drug, and any interactions the drug is known to have with other drugs or with food.

  Next week’s column highlights questions to ask to improve your chances of getting an accurate diagnosis.