Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country
Although there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed di...
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doaj-0ca53f63f4dd401cb64134f033e141922020-11-24T21:14:47ZengHindawi LimitedJournal of Environmental and Public Health1687-98051687-98132018-01-01201810.1155/2018/19759311975931Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing CountryHashem Neshati0Fereshte Sheybani1HamidReza Naderi2MohamadReza Sarvghad3Ahmad Khalifeh Soltani4Elaheh Efterkharpoor5Mehdi Jabbari Nooghabi6Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Statistics, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, IranAlthough there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed diagnosis of TB can affect patients and community adversely. Our aim in the present study was at evaluating the type of diagnostic errors in TB patients from symptom onset to diagnosis. This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in three university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. We showed a long delay in diagnosing TB that is mostly related to the time from first medical visit to diagnosis. Errors in the diagnostic process were identified in 97.5% of patients. The most common type of error in diagnosing TB was failure in hypothesis generation (72%), followed by history taking and physical examination. In conclusion, it seems likely that efforts to improve public awareness of and health literacy for TB, to coordinate the referral and follow-up systems of patients, and to improve physicians’ skills in history taking and physical examination and clinical reasoning will result in reduced delay in diagnosis of TB and, perhaps, improved patient safety and community health.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/1975931 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Hashem Neshati Fereshte Sheybani HamidReza Naderi MohamadReza Sarvghad Ahmad Khalifeh Soltani Elaheh Efterkharpoor Mehdi Jabbari Nooghabi |
spellingShingle |
Hashem Neshati Fereshte Sheybani HamidReza Naderi MohamadReza Sarvghad Ahmad Khalifeh Soltani Elaheh Efterkharpoor Mehdi Jabbari Nooghabi Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country Journal of Environmental and Public Health |
author_facet |
Hashem Neshati Fereshte Sheybani HamidReza Naderi MohamadReza Sarvghad Ahmad Khalifeh Soltani Elaheh Efterkharpoor Mehdi Jabbari Nooghabi |
author_sort |
Hashem Neshati |
title |
Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country |
title_short |
Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country |
title_full |
Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country |
title_fullStr |
Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country |
title_sort |
diagnostic errors in tuberculous patients: a multicenter study from a developing country |
publisher |
Hindawi Limited |
series |
Journal of Environmental and Public Health |
issn |
1687-9805 1687-9813 |
publishDate |
2018-01-01 |
description |
Although there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed diagnosis of TB can affect patients and community adversely. Our aim in the present study was at evaluating the type of diagnostic errors in TB patients from symptom onset to diagnosis. This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in three university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. We showed a long delay in diagnosing TB that is mostly related to the time from first medical visit to diagnosis. Errors in the diagnostic process were identified in 97.5% of patients. The most common type of error in diagnosing TB was failure in hypothesis generation (72%), followed by history taking and physical examination. In conclusion, it seems likely that efforts to improve public awareness of and health literacy for TB, to coordinate the referral and follow-up systems of patients, and to improve physicians’ skills in history taking and physical examination and clinical reasoning will result in reduced delay in diagnosis of TB and, perhaps, improved patient safety and community health. |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/1975931 |
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