National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
Data
- Data Infographics
- Data Visualizations
- Data Tools
- Data Innovations
- All-Payer Claims Database
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
- AHRQ Quality Indicator Tools for Data Analytics
- State Snapshots
- United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK)
- Data Sources Available from AHRQ
Search All Research Studies
AHRQ Research Studies Date
Topics
- Adverse Drug Events (ADE) (2)
- Adverse Events (7)
- Children/Adolescents (3)
- Clinician-Patient Communication (1)
- Communication (1)
- COVID-19 (1)
- Diagnostic Safety and Quality (4)
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) (1)
- Health Information Technology (HIT) (1)
- Health Insurance (1)
- Health Literacy (1)
- Hospital Discharge (1)
- Hospitalization (1)
- Hospitals (3)
- Inpatient Care (1)
- (-) Medical Errors (10)
- Medical Liability (1)
- Medication (3)
- Medication: Safety (2)
- Patient Safety (7)
- Primary Care (1)
- Quality Improvement (1)
- Quality Indicators (QIs) (1)
- Quality of Care (3)
- Rural Health (1)
- Telehealth (1)
AHRQ Research Studies
Sign up: AHRQ Research Studies Email updates
Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 10 of 10 Research Studies DisplayedAuerbach AD, Lee TM, Hubbard CC
Diagnostic errors in hospitalized adults who died or were transferred to intensive care.
The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to determine the prevalence, underlying causes, and harms of diagnostic errors in hospitalized adults who were transferred to an intensive care unit or who died. Data was taken from 29 academic medical centers in the U.S. in a random sample of adults hospitalized with general medical conditions. Errors were found to have contributed to temporary harm, permanent harm, or death in nearly 18% of patients; among patients who died, diagnostic error was judged to have contributed to death in 6.6% of cases. The researchers noted that problems with choosing and interpreting tests and the processes involved with clinician assessment were a high priority for improvement efforts.
AHRQ-funded; HS027369.
Citation: Auerbach AD, Lee TM, Hubbard CC .
Diagnostic errors in hospitalized adults who died or were transferred to intensive care.
JAMA Intern Med 2024 Feb; 184(2):164-73. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.7347..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Medical Errors, Hospitals, Inpatient Care, Quality of Care, Patient Safety, Adverse Events
Dalal AK, Schnipper JL, Raffel K
Identifying and classifying diagnostic errors in acute care across hospitals: early lessons from the Utility of Predictive Systems in Diagnostic Errors (UPSIDE) study.
This paper describes the Utility of Predictive Systems in Diagnostic Errors (UPSIDE) study, whose aim was to define the prevalence and underlying causes of diagnostic errors (DEs) in patients who die in the hospital or are transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) after the first 48 hours. This study was conducted at 31 hospitals with more than 2500 cases reviewed using electronic health records. The authors identified some insights into key requirements into building a robust DE surveillance program by developing these steps: 1) Develop a shared understanding of what constitutes a diagnostic error; 2) Use validated tools to identify diagnostic errors and classify process failures, but respect your context; 3) Develop a standard approach to using electronic health records for case reviews; 4) Ensure reliability and consistency of the case review process; and 5) Link diagnostic error case reviews to institutional safety programs. They also developed steps to establish a diagnosis error review process at the hospital level with six processes.
AHRQ-funded; HS027369; HS026613.
Citation: Dalal AK, Schnipper JL, Raffel K .
Identifying and classifying diagnostic errors in acute care across hospitals: early lessons from the Utility of Predictive Systems in Diagnostic Errors (UPSIDE) study.
J Hosp Med 2024 Feb; 19(2):140-45. doi: 10.1002/jhm.13136..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Medical Errors, Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Quality of Care, Hospitals
Newman-Toker DE, Nassery N, Schaffer AC
Burden of serious harms from diagnostic error in the USA.
Americans who experience serious harm from misdiagnosis annually. Serious harm is defined as permanent morbidity or morality. This cross-sectional analysis used nationally representative observational data. The authors estimated annual incident vascular events and infections from 21.5 million (M) sampled US hospital discharges (2012-2014). US-based cancer registries were used to find annual new cancers. They derived diagnostic errors and serious harms by multiplying by literature-based rates for disease-specific incidences for 15 major vascular events, infections and cancers ('Big Three' categories). Extrapolating to all diseases (including non-'Big Three' dangerous disease categories), they estimated total serious harms annually in the USA to be 795,000 (plausible range 598,000-1,023,000). Using more conservative assumptions they estimated 549,000 serious harms. These results were compatible with setting-specific serious harm estimates from inpatient, emergency department and ambulatory care. Fifteen dangerous diseases accounted for 50.7% of total serious harms and the top 5 (stroke, sepsis, pneumonia, venous thromboembolism and lung cancer) accounted for 38.7%.
AHRQ-funded; HS027614; HS029350.
Citation: Newman-Toker DE, Nassery N, Schaffer AC .
Burden of serious harms from diagnostic error in the USA.
BMJ Qual Saf 2024 Jan 19; 33(2):109-20. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2021-014130..
Keywords: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Quality of Care, Adverse Events
Carroll AR, Johnson JA, Stassun JC
Health literacy-informed communication to reduce discharge medication errors in hospitalized children: a randomized clinical trial.
This study’s objective was to test a health literacy-informed communication intervention to decrease liquid medication dosing errors compared with standard counseling in hospitalized children. This parallel, randomized clinical trial was conducted from June 22, 2021, to August 20, 2022, at a tertiary care, US children's hospital. English- and Spanish-speaking caregivers of hospitalized children 6 years or younger prescribed a new, scheduled liquid medication at discharge were included in the analysis. Observed dosing errors were the main outcome measured, and secondary outcomes included caregiver-reported medication knowledge. Among 198 randomized caregivers (mean age 31.4 years; 186 women [93.9%]; 36 [18.2%] Hispanic or Latino and 158 [79.8%] White), the primary outcome was available for 151 (76.3%). The observed mean (SD) percentage dosing error was 1.0% (2.2 percentage points) among the intervention group and 3.3% (5.1 percentage points) among the standard counseling group (absolute difference, 2.3 percentage points). Twenty-four of 79 caregivers in the intervention group (30.4%) measured an incorrect dose compared with 39 of 72 (54.2%) in the standard counseling group. The intervention enhanced caregiver-reported medication knowledge compared with the standard counseling group for medication dose (71 of 76 [93.4%] vs 55 of 69 [79.7%]), duration of administration (65 of 76 [85.5%] vs 49 of 69 [71.0%], and correct reporting of 2 or more medication adverse effects (60 of 76 [78.9%] vs 13 of 69 [18.8%]).
AHRQ-funded; HS026122.
Citation: Carroll AR, Johnson JA, Stassun JC .
Health literacy-informed communication to reduce discharge medication errors in hospitalized children: a randomized clinical trial.
JAMA Netw Open 2024 Jan 2; 7(1):e2350969. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.50969..
Keywords: Children/Adolescents, Health Literacy, Communication, Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Clinician-Patient Communication, Hospital Discharge, Medication: Safety
Cohen TN, Berdahl CT, Coleman BL
Medication safety event reporting: Factors that contribute to safety events during times of organizational stress.
This study’s objective was to understand the insights conveyed in hospital incident reports about how work system factors affected medication safety during a coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) surge. The authors randomly selected 100 medication safety incident reports from an academic medical center (December 2020 to January 2021), identified near misses and errors, and classified contributing work system factors using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System-Healthcare. Results showed that among 35 near misses/errors, incident reports described contributing factors (mean 1.3/report) involving skill-based errors (n = 20), communication (n = 8), and tools/technology (n = 4). Seven of these events were linked to COVID-19.
AHRQ-funded; HS027455.
Citation: Cohen TN, Berdahl CT, Coleman BL .
Medication safety event reporting: Factors that contribute to safety events during times of organizational stress.
J Nurs Care Qual 2024 Jan-Mar; 39(1):51-57. doi: 10.1097/ncq.0000000000000720..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Patient Safety, COVID-19, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors
Schiff GD, Puopolo AL, Huben-Kearney A
Primary care closed claims experience of Massachusetts malpractice insurers.
The researchers studied patterns of primary care malpractice types, causes, and outcomes as part of a Massachusetts ambulatory malpractice risk and safety improvement project. During a 5-year period there were 7224 malpractice claims of which 551 (7.7%) were from primary care practices. In Massachusetts, most primary care claims filed were related to alleged misdiagnosis.
AHRQ-funded; HS019508.
Citation: Schiff GD, Puopolo AL, Huben-Kearney A .
Primary care closed claims experience of Massachusetts malpractice insurers.
JAMA Intern Med 2013 Dec 9-23;173(22):2063-8. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.11070..
Keywords: Primary Care, Medical Errors, Health Insurance, Patient Safety, Medical Liability
Starmer AJ, Sectish TC, Simon DW
Rates of medical errors and preventable adverse events among hospitalized children following implementation of a resident handoff bundle.
The researchers sought to determine whether introduction of a multifaceted handoff program was associated with reduced rates of medical errors and preventable adverse events, fewer omissions of key data in written handoffs, improved verbal handoffs, and changes in resident-physician workflow. They found that implementation of a handoff bundle was associated with a significant reduction in medical errors and preventable adverse events among hospitalized children.
AHRQ-funded; HS019456.
Citation: Starmer AJ, Sectish TC, Simon DW .
Rates of medical errors and preventable adverse events among hospitalized children following implementation of a resident handoff bundle.
JAMA 2013 Dec 4;310(21):2262-70. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.281961..
Keywords: Medical Errors, Adverse Events, Children/Adolescents, Hospitalization, Patient Safety
Dharmar M, Kuppermann N, Romano PS
Telemedicine consultations and medication errors in rural emergency departments.
This study compared the frequency of physician-related medication errors among seriously ill and injured children receiving telemedicine consultations, similar children receiving telephone consultations, and similar children receiving no consultations in rural emergency departments (EDs). It found that the use of telemedicine to provide pediatric critical care consultations to rural EDs is associated with less frequent physician-related ED medication errors among seriously ill and injured children.
AHRQ-funded; HS013179; HS019712.
Citation: Dharmar M, Kuppermann N, Romano PS .
Telemedicine consultations and medication errors in rural emergency departments.
Pediatrics 2013 Dec;132(6):1090-7. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-1374..
Keywords: Children/Adolescents, Medical Errors, Medication, Rural Health, Telehealth
Henriksen K, Brady J
AHRQ Author: Henriksen K, Brady J
The pursuit of better diagnostic performance: a human factors perspective.
Improving diagnostic performance is increasingly recognised as a multifaceted challenge. This paper addresses a few of these challenges, including questions that focus on who owns the problem, treating cognitive and system shortcomings as separate issues, why knowledge in the head is not enough, and what we are learning from health information technology and the use of checklists. The authors propose a systems engineering approach making use of rapid-cycle prototyping and simulation, and they call for the formation of substantive partnerships with those in disciplines beyond the clinical domain.
AHRQ-authored.
Citation: Henriksen K, Brady J .
The pursuit of better diagnostic performance: a human factors perspective.
BMJ Qual Saf 2013 Oct;22 Suppl 2:ii1-ii5. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2013-001827.
.
.
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Health Information Technology (HIT), Quality Improvement
O'Leary KJ, Devisetty VK, Patel AR
Comparison of traditional trigger tool to data warehouse based screening for identifying hospital adverse events.
This study compared a traditional trigger tool with an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) based screening method to detect hospital adverse events (AEs). The authors found relatively poor agreement between traditional trigger tool and EDW based screening with only approximately a third of all AEs detected by both methods. They recommended a combination of complementary methods as the optimal approach to detecting AEs among hospitalized patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS019630.
Citation: O'Leary KJ, Devisetty VK, Patel AR .
Comparison of traditional trigger tool to data warehouse based screening for identifying hospital adverse events.
BMJ Qual Saf 2013 Feb;22(2):130-8. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2012-001102.
.
.
Keywords: Adverse Events, Hospitals, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Quality Indicators (QIs)