A new study finds that nearly 6% of the estimated 130 million people who go to US emergency rooms every year are misdiagnosed, which translates to about 1 in 18 patients getting the wrong diagnosis.
The report, published by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, reviewed nearly 300 studies published between January 2000 and September 2021. The researchers estimate that 7.4 million misdiagnosis errors are made every year, 2.6 million people receive a harm that could have been prevented, and another 370,000 are permanently disabled or die because of the misdiagnosis. This equates to about 1,400 diagnostic errors every year per emergency room across the country.
The top five conditions that were misdiagnosed were:
- stroke
- myocardial infarction/heart attack
- aortic aneurysm/dissection
- spinal cord compression/injury
- venous thromboembolism/blood clots
My Take: I don’t know about you but if I am concerned enough to go to (or take a loved one to) my local Emergency Room, I want better care than this report tells my I will likely receive.