Quarter of a million Americans die every year after being misdiagnosed in ER, federal study suggests
- Misdiagnoses are most likely to happen when a patient has unusual symptoms
- Women and people of color had a 20-30% higher chance of being misdiagnosed
- Study came under criticism for applying hospital error data from abroad to US
A quarter of a million Americans die every year because they are misdiagnosed in the emergency room by bungling doctors, a federal report suggests.
It found lives are being lost because medics do not know how to recognize some of the lesser-known symptoms of deadly complications like strokes and heart attacks.
For example, a stroke patient who goes to the hospital with dizziness has a 14-fold increased risk of being misdiagnosed compared to more common signs like numbness and speech problems.
Overall, the report estimated that 7.4 million Americans are mistakenly diagnosed during the 130 million yearly trips made to hospital ERs – the equivalent of around 6 percent. Roughly 370,000 patients suffer serious harm as a result.
The graph shows how the claims of malpractice made by patients due to doctors’ diagnostic errors vary across different ages. The so-called ‘Big Three’ disease categories — cancers, vascular and infections — make up 72 percent of all ER misdiagnoses which cause serious harm to patients
Researchers from John Hopkins University examined 279 studies between January 2000 and September 2021 to calculate the rate of diagnostic errors and pick out the conditions that most frequently slip under doctors’ radars.
The study included research based on hospital errors in Canada, the UK, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, leading to US medical officials doubting whether its conclusions can be accurately applied to America.
The report found misdiagnoses usually happen when a patient has nonspecific or rare symptoms.
When patients are outside the typical age range for medical conditions, this also makes things trickier.
A doctor may not instantly recognize that a 21-year-old woman struggling to breathe is having a heart attack, or that a patient with back pain might have a spinal abscess.
The report also found that women and people of color had a 20 to 30 percent higher chance of being misdiagnosed.
But the study came under intense criticism from medical officials, who claimed it was ‘misleading’ and drew false conclusions.
Dr Christopher Kang, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, told The New York Times: ‘In addition to making misleading, incomplete and erroneous conclusions from the literature reviewed, the report conveys a tone that inaccurately characterizes and unnecessarily disparages the practice of emergency medicine in the United States.’
Dr Kang said the study’s reliance on data from other countries such as Spain and Switzerland mean the error and harm rates calculated by the researchers could be overblown.
The researchers said: ‘Our findings are tempered by limitations in the underlying evidence base, including issues related to data sources, measurement methods, and causal relationships.
‘Nevertheless, overall diagnostic error and misdiagnosis-related harm rates are consistent with what has been found in other clinical settings, for example primary care and inpatient.’
The study was published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health & Human Services, who contracted John Hopkins University to look into diagnostic errors.
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