AHRQ Issue Brief Outlines Competencies Needed To Improve Diagnostic Skills in Health Professions Education

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Issue Brief Outlines Competencies Needed To Improve Diagnostic Skills in Health Professions Education.
• Most Patients Who Experienced Diagnostic Error Cited Poor Communication With Health Providers.
• Nursing Home Clinicians Tend To Overdiagnose Urinary Tract Infections, AHRQ-Funded Study Finds.
• Funding Opportunities for Research on Health Equity To Include Projects on Diagnostic Errors.
• Now Available: 2022 Survey on Patient Safety Culture Medical Office Database Report.
• AHRQ Patient Safety Toolkits Support Patient and Family Engagement.

Editor’s Note: Like Tuesday’s special edition, today’s AHRQ News Now is devoted to highlighting AHRQ’s support for Patient Safety Awareness Week 2022.

AHRQ Issue Brief Outlines Competencies Needed To Improve Diagnostic Skills in Health Professions Education

A new AHRQ Issue Brief identifies gaps in health professions education and outlines a set of skills needed to advance diagnostic excellence. Educational programs that train physicians, nurses and pharmacists do not offer sufficient diagnostic training due to a lack of emphasis on clinical reasoning concepts and other skills, according to the brief. Improving Education—A Key to Better Diagnostic Outcomes highlights the current state of diagnosis education across medical, nursing and pharmacy education; describes new innovations with potential for high impact; and identifies key competencies students need to learn to improve diagnostic performance. Authors organize diagnostic-related competencies at the individual, system and teamwork levels to advance knowledge and skills across the healthcare spectrum. Access the issue brief.

Most Patients Who Experienced Diagnostic Error Cited Poor Communication With Health Providers

Patients with limited health literacy or low socioeconomic status who experienced a diagnostic error were most likely to cite poor communication with their health provider as a contributing factor, an AHRQ-funded study published in BMJ Quality and Safety has found. Researchers surveyed nearly 600 people who reported experiencing a medical error caused by a delayed, missed or incorrect diagnosis. About two-thirds of the respondents (381 respondents) met the criteria for low health literacy or low socioeconomic status. The most common contributing factor reported by 69 percent of the participants was “healthcare providers not listening to the patient.” Other factors noted included teams of providers without a clear leader, no qualified translator or provider who spoke the patient’s language, inability to keep follow-up appointments and inability to pay for necessary care. The authors identified access to interpreter services as a “diagnostic safety imperative,” among others. Access the abstract.

Nursing Home Clinicians Tend To Overdiagnose Urinary Tract Infections, AHRQ-Funded Study Finds

Clinicians in long-term care facilities showed a tendency to overdiagnose urinary tract infections, an AHRQ-funded study has found. In the study, published recently in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers presented more than 1,700 nursing home physicians, advanced practice providers and registered nurses several scenarios to determine whether they would diagnose a likely urinary tract infection according to established clinical practice guidelines. Based on surveys of the clinicians, researchers found that a correct diagnosis occurred in 66 percent of all scenarios, with nurses more likely to overdiagnose an infection. Researchers called for systems-based interventions to enhance clinical decision-making. Access the abstract.

Funding Opportunities for Research on Health Equity To Include Projects on Diagnostic Errors

Research proposals aimed at preventing diagnostic errors are among those being solicited by AHRQ in a recent Special Emphasis Notice. The notice highlights the agency’s interest in receiving health services research grant applications that propose innovative and evidence-based interventions that advance the nation’s goal of achieving equity in the delivery of healthcare services. In addition, AHRQ is funding large patient safety research projects (RO1) that identify strategies to reduce medical errors in various healthcare settings. July 7 is the deadline for submitting proposals for this funding opportunity. Finally, funding is also available for demonstration and dissemination (R18) health services projects that advance diagnostic safety and healthcare quality. Sept. 30 is the deadline for those proposals.

Now Available: 2022 Survey on Patient Safety Culture Medical Office Database Report

AHRQ’s Survey on Patient Safety™ (SOPS®) Culture program has released its 2022 Medical Office Database Report (PDF, 9.4 MB) a biannual report on how participating medical office providers and staff perceive their patient safety culture. This new report, based on data submitted voluntarily by 1,100 U.S. medical offices, provides a narrative description of the findings and appendices that describe characteristics of participating medical offices. AHRQ’s family of SOPS surveys—which measure safety culture perceptions in medical offices, hospitals, nursing homes, community pharmacies and ambulatory surgery centers—ask healthcare providers and staff about the extent to which their organizational culture supports patient safety. SOPS databases are a central repository for SOPS survey data and represent an important tool for organizations to understand and advance patient safety culture.

AHRQ Patient Safety Toolkits Support Patient and Family Engagement

AHRQ toolkits emphasize the importance of engaging patients and families as a way to improve safety in a variety of healthcare settings. Slide presentations, videos and other resources are available in these free toolkits:

• Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety.
• Toolkit To Improve Antibiotic Use in Long-Term Care.
• Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety.
• Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families.
• Toolkit to Engage High-Risk Patients in Safe Transitions Across Ambulatory Settings.