Tools To Improve Diagnostic Safety

AHRQ tools to reduce diagnostic errors include:

Calibrate Dx is a self-evaluation tool for clinicians to improve their diagnostic decision making. This resource provides structured exercises and tools to help clinicians learn from reviewing their clinical practice. Anyone whose scope of practice includes medical diagnosis can use Calibrate Dx.

Diagnostic Safety Supplemental Items for the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) Medical Office Survey. These supplemental items are designed to be used in conjunction with the core SOPS Medical Office Survey to help medical offices assess the extent to which their organizations support the diagnostic process, accurate diagnoses, and communication around diagnoses.

Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety. This guide encourages hospital patients and family members to be involved in their care. It focuses on four primary strategies for promoting patient/family engagement in hospital safety and quality of care:

• Encourage patients and family members to participate as advisors.
• Promote better communication among patients, family members, and health care professionals from the point of admission.
• Implement safe continuity of care by keeping the patient and family informed through nurse bedside change-of-shift reports.
• Engage patients and families in discharge planning throughout the hospital stay.

Learn more about the importance of patient and family engagement with this infographic (PDF, 392 KB).

Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families offers four interventions and four case studies designed to improve patient safety by meaningfully engaging patients and families in their care.

Improving Your Laboratory Testing Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for Rapid-Cycle Patient Safety and Quality Improvement About 40 percent of patient encounters in primary care offices involve some form of medical test. Studies of primary care offices consistently show that the process for managing tests is a significant source of error and patient harm. This toolkit helps ensure that diagnostic lab tests are accurately managed and shared with patients and clinicians in a timely manner. The tools help examine how tests are managed in the office, from the moment tests are ordered until the patient is notified of the test results and the appropriate follow up is determined.

Measure Dx: A Resource To Identify, Analyze, and Learn From Diagnostic Safety Events is a resource to help healthcare organizations detect, analyze, and learn from diagnostic safety events. Measure Dx can be used by any healthcare organization interested in promoting diagnostic excellence and reducing harm from diagnostic safety events. Potential users include clinicians, quality and safety professionals, risk management professionals, health system leaders, and clinical managers.

Questions Are the Answer: Asking questions about a diagnosis or other aspects of care is a step that patients can take to make care safer. Talking with your doctor builds trust and leads to better results, quality, safety, and satisfaction. One of the best ways to communicate with your doctor and health care team is by asking questions. Because time is limited during medical appointments, you will feel less rushed if you prepare your questions before your appointment. These AHRQ resources demonstrate how asking questions can improve care with tips on how to communicate with clinicians.

Reducing Diagnostic Errors in Primary Care Pediatrics Toolkit aims to assist primary care practice teams with a systematic approach to reduce diagnostic errors among children in three important areas: elevated blood pressure, adolescent depression, and actionable pediatric diagnostic tests. This toolkit walks teams through the measurement, screening, recognition, diagnosis, follow-up, and reduction of diagnostic errors in these areas. It is based on clinical evidence, best practices, and a compilation of resources from the project, which involved over 100 primary care physicians and their care teams working across the United States to improve care for children.

Resources To Facilitate Communication Between Patients and Clinicians: From the IOM report, "Improving Diagnosis in Health Care," this toolkit includes a checklist and other resources to help patients understand what they can to do prevent diagnostic error.

TeamSTEPPS for Diagnosis Improvement: TeamSTEPPS^® is an evidence-based program built on a framework composed of four teachable, learnable skills-communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support. The TeamSTEPPS for Diagnosis Improvement Course applies the TeamSTEPPS framework to the specific problem of diagnostic error. When implementing TeamSTEPPS for Diagnosis Improvement, teams will learn about the four skills and how improved communication among all members of the care team can help lead to safer, more accurate, and more timely diagnosis in all healthcare settings.

The Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety is designed to promote enhanced communication and information sharing within the patient-provider encounter to help patients, families, and health professionals work together as partners to improve diagnostic safety.