A scale for measuring the severity of diagnostic errors in accident and emergency departments.
OBJECTIVE
To design and test a simple scale for measuring the severity of diagnostic errors occurring in accident and emergency (A&E) departments.


METHODS
Empirical design of a scale which indicates the severity of errors on a scale of 1 to 7. It is obtained by adding two scores which indicate the additional treatment which a patient would have received and the follow up which would have been organised if the correct diagnosis had been made initially.


RESULTS
The misdiagnosis severity score (MSS) revealed 166 diagnostic errors in injuries treated in an A&E department over one years. The scoring system allowed the more significant errors to be separated from the less significant ones.


CONCLUSIONS
The MSS proved useful in describing the errors made in an A&E department.
Guly
H R
HR
Accident and Emergency Department, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
D000359:Aftercare / Q000592:standards; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000145:classification*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D010343:Patient Admission; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D006113:United Kingdom