1 in 20 Adults Misdiagnosed in Outpatient Clinics

An estimated 12 million U.S. patients are misdiagnosed in outpatient clinics annually, according to a recent study that investigates the safety risks of these clinics in the United States.

According to the study, which was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Quality and Safety, the 12 million annual incorrect diagnoses account for an estimated one in every 20 adults in the U.S Authors of the study are calling this worrisome frequency of misdiagnoses a "substantial safety risk."

According to the study, researchers were able to conclude that the annual incorrect outpatient diagnosis rate stands at 5.08 percent after reviewing data from three studies that included the medical histories of hundreds of patients who attended outpatient medical clinics. The team then identified and confirmed all instances of misdiagnosis cited within the reports, comparing the statistic to both overall and then adult populations.

According to the research team, which was comprised of  medical and healthcare quality experts from Huston, Texas, past research that they had conducted in past studies indicated that nearly half of all diagnostic errors can potentially lead to "Severe harm" to a patient. This means that nearly six million adult outpatients  each year are put at risk in the united states due to a simple misdiagnosis.

Lead researcher, r. Hardeep Singh of the Veterans Affairs Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety and the Baylor College of Medicine in Huston, Texas, told Medical News Today that misdiagnoses often happen in busy outpatient clinics because time-pressured physicians might find themselves coming to conclusions about a patient's condition sooner than they would have liked. Uncertainty about new testing also plays another rose in misdiagnoses, where doctors unfamiliar with new techniques may interpret results incorrectly.

According to Singh and his co-authors, it is the hope that the results of their data will help make officials more aware of the misdiagnosis problem the U.S. still faces.

"This foundational evidence should encourage policymakers, healthcare organizations and researchers to start measuring and reducing diagnostic errors," the authors concluded.

The study was published in BMJ Quality & Safety on April 17. 

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