I remember seeing similar articles 20 years ago with similar orders of magnitude... and I found them simply unbelievable. I still do.
Why?
There are just over 1,000,000 physicians in the United States.
This study implies that about one LETHAL or permanently disabling diagnostic error is made by every year PER PHYSICIAN. (Yes, of course I know there are PA’s and NP’s, but you get the point.)
Now I don’t consider myself to be a stellar diagnostician. But I knew virtually all the pediatricians in my communities AND heard the scuttlebutt.
In my particular sphere I heard of or was aware of ONE lethal diagnostic error in practice and ONE in training by docs and ONE by a nurse. Each time we were devastated. Far from covering up, we tried to understand and improve.
The magnitude of lethal error implied by such studies - which invariably have assumptions that can skew the results - is not credible.
I feel the need to make one other comment.
I remember seeing similar articles 20 years ago with similar orders of magnitude... and I found them simply unbelievable. I still do.
Why?
There are just over 1,000,000 physicians in the United States.
This study implies that about one LETHAL or permanently disabling diagnostic error is made by every year PER PHYSICIAN. (Yes, of course I know there are PA’s and NP’s, but you get the point.)
Now I don’t consider myself to be a stellar diagnostician. But I knew virtually all the pediatricians in my communities AND heard the scuttlebutt.
In my particular sphere I heard of or was aware of ONE lethal diagnostic error in practice and ONE in training by docs and ONE by a nurse. Each time we were devastated. Far from covering up, we tried to understand and improve.
The magnitude of lethal error implied by such studies - which invariably have assumptions that can skew the results - is not credible.
Somebody’s gotta look at the forest, not just the trees.