Admin data can help EDs avoid missed heart attacks
Hospital administrative data contain information that may help emergency department (ED) staff identify populations at risk of experiencing a missed diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
In a study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ), researchers used 2007 data from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases and State Emergency Department Databases to evaluate missed diagnoses in 111,973 admitted adult patients.
"We identified missed diagnoses in the ED for 993 of 112,000 patients (0.9% of all AMI admissions). These patients had visited an ED with chest pain or cardiac conditions, were released, and were subsequently admitted for AMI within 7 days," according to the study published in Diagnostics.
Patients who were African American or younger had higher odds of having a missed AMI diagnosis. Hospital teaching status, availability of cardiac catheterization, high ED admission rates, high inpatient occupancy rates, and urban location were associated with lower odds of missed diagnoses.
The authors concluded that administrative data provide robust information that may help EDs identify populations at risk of experiencing a missed diagnosis, address disparities and reduce diagnostic errors.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.