Are Patients in Part to Blame When Doctors Miss the Diagnosis?
August 7, 2009
Diagnostic failures, or diagnoses that are delayed or in error, are an increasingly popular topic of research in patient safety. While some researchers have focused on the role of doctors — are there flaws in the way they think? are “gut reactions†reliable? — others have looked at the steps involved in care, or the process of care. What has emerged most recently from this latter group of studies is that diagnostic failures are often due to missed steps, so-called “process of care lapses,†that stem from both doctors and patients. (New York Times)
