Assessment of the value of technician reporting of electrocardiographs in an accident and emergency department.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the value of a cardiac technicians' report on electrocardiographs (ECGs) in reducing serious errors of interpretation by senior house officers.


METHODS
A parallel study of interpretation of ECGs by senior house officers from 238 cases seen in an accident and emergency (A&E) department in a teaching hospital. 129 ECGs were reported by a cardiac technician at the time of recording and before the senior house officer wrote a report, and 109 were reported only by the senior house officers. Misinterpretations by doctors and technicians were graded by a consultant cardiologist on a four point scale and compared in the two groups. Serious errors (grade 4) were defined as those which potentially affected immediate management.


RESULTS
The number of grade 4 errors of interpretation of ECGs by A&E senior house officers was reduced by 59% when there was a prior technical report (mean (SD), 18(17)% v 6 (7%); Fisher's exact test P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
When cardiac technicians provide a report on an ECG at the time of its recording, serious errors of interpretation by senior house officers are reduced.
Dudley
M
M
Department of Accident and Emergency Medicine, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield.
Channer
K S
KS
D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003253:Consultants; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000592:standards*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013679:Technology, Radiologic / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards