[Diagnostic concordance between emergency room and hospitalization in medical patients].
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to know the concordance of diagnosis between emergency rooms amd hospitalization wards and to analyze the mistake index, the epidemiological characteristics and the main reasons for the mistakes.


METHODS
We analyzed hospitalized patients and used a three-level concordance: exact diagnosis (A), syndromical concordance (B) and mistake (C). We compared age, sex, time and days of hospitalization between the groups A+B and C. We also analyzed the causes of mistakes in group C.


RESULTS
We found 88.1% of patients in level A, 7.3% in level B and 4.6% in level C. There were no significant differences in the variables analyzed. Main mistakes were a deficient clinical evaluation (50%) and X-ray interpretation (28.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
Concordance of diagnoses was the rule, with less than 5% mistakes. There is no clinical or epidemiological pattern for the mistake. The most frequent cause for it was a deficient clinical evaluation.
Tudela
Pere
P
Unidad de Urgencias. Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol. Badalona. Barcelona. España.
Mòdol
Josep Maria
JM
Veny
Aina
A
Tor
Jordi
J
Bonet
Montserrat
M
Rego
María José
MJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003954:Diagnostic Services / Q000592:standards*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain