Impact of diagnostic errors on adverse outcomes: learning from emergency department revisits with repeat CT or MRI

Background To investigate diagnostic errors and their association with adverse outcomes (AOs) during patient revisits with repeat imaging (RVRIs) in the emergency department (ED). Results Diagnostic errors stemming from index imaging studies and AOs within 30 days in 1054 RVRIs (<= 7 days) from 2005 to 2015 were retrospectively analyzed according to revisit timing (early [<= 72 h] or late [> 72 h to 7 days] RVRIs). Risk factors for AOs were assessed using multivariable logistic analysis. The AO rate in the diagnostic error group was significantly higher than that in the non-error group (33.3% [77 of 231] vs. 14.8% [122 of 823], p < .001). The AO rate was the highest in early revisits within 72 h if diagnostic errors occurred (36.2%, 54 of 149). The most common diseases associated with diagnostic errors were digestive diseases in the radiologic misdiagnosis category (47.5%, 28 of 59) and neurologic diseases in the delayed radiology reporting time (46.8%, 29 of 62) and clinician error (27.3%, 30 of 110) categories. In the matched set of the AO and non-AO groups, multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that the following diagnostic errors contributed to AO occurrence: radiologic error (odds ratio [OR] 3.56; p < .001) in total RVRIs, radiologic error (OR 3.70; p = .001) and clinician error (OR 4.82; p = .03) in early RVRIs, and radiologic error (OR 3.36; p = .02) in late RVRIs. Conclusion Diagnostic errors in index imaging studies are strongly associated with high AO rates in RVRIs in the ED.