Patient Safety
Initiatives
Diagnostic Errors
Missed and delayed breast cancer diagnoses
Relatively little is known about medical errors that result in missed and delayed diagnoses. However, missed and delayed diagnoses are an ongoing risk to patient safety and a growing source of malpractice liability. Center for Patient Safety staff members led a chart review study of adult patients diagnosed with breast cancer from 1999-2004. Results will be available in late 2007.
Pain diagnosis
Center staff found that clinical staff reliably screen patients for pain in over 96% of visits. Current initiatives seek to maintain high standards and ensure communication of critical results to front line providers.
