test blog

One important conceptualization that potentially can address safety concerns in primary care, especially diagnostic error (i.e., missed, delayed, or incorrect diagnoses) ...

....is the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).  This issue is "possibly the leading type of error in primary care. Diagnostic errors are the single largest contributor to ambulatory malpractice claims (40% in some studies) and cost approximately $300 000 per claim on average."

Yearly, approximately 100,000 patients die of health care–associated infections, about another 100,000 die from other preventable errors, and "tens of thousands more die of diagnostic errors or failure to receive recommended therapies."1-3

To generalize, it is unfortunate that physicians often are "overconfident about the quality of care they provide, believing things will go right rather than wrong, assuming they provide higher-quality care than the evidence suggests, and thinking they alone have sufficient knowledge and skills to provide care."

Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD. "Learning Accountability for Patient Outcomes." JAMA. 2010;304(2):204-205. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.979.

Delaying childhood vaccinations, or not getting immunized at all, does not provide any neuropsychological benefits for children at 7 to 10 years of age and might even result in poorer outcomes on some measures.

How putting in a pacemaker could wreck a family's life....