Table 3.
Unadjusted Association Between Diagnostic Process Faults and Diagnostic Errors (n = 257)
| No. of errors/no. of cases (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEER diagnostic process fault* | Prevalence of error with fault | Prevalence of error with no fault | Unadjusted prevalence ratio (PR) (95% CI) |
p value |
| Access and presentation | 6/31 (19.4) | 30/226 (13.3) | 1.46 (0.5–2.9) | 0.36 |
| History taking | 21/67 (31.3) | 15/190 (7.9) | 3.97 (2.3–6.9) | < 0.01 |
| Physical exam | 13/23 (56.5) | 23/234 (9.8) | 5.75 (3.4–10.1) | < 0.01 |
| Testing ordering, performance, and interpretation | 22/51 (43.1) | 14/206 (6.8) | 6.35 (3.3–13.4) | < 0.01 |
| Patient follow-up and monitoring | 12/21 (57.1) | 24/236 (10.2) | 5.62 (3.0–9.6) | < 0.01 |
| Consultation and referral | 6/25 (24.0) | 30/232 (12.9) | 1.86 (0.5–4.3) | 0.14 |
| Health care teamwork | 4/7 (57.1) | 32/250 (12.8) | 4.46 (0.0–7.8) | < 0.01 |
| Patient communication | 2/5 (40.0) | 34/252 (13.5) | 2.96 (0.0–9.2) | 0.12 |
| Clinical assessment | 32/51 (62.7) | 4/206 (1.9) | 32.31 (15.0–146.5) | < 0.01 |
| COVID-19 related | 18/61 (29.5) | 18/196 (9.2) | 3.21 (1.9–5.8) | < 0.01 |
*See Appendix Table 7 for groupings