COVID-19-related Diagnostic Errors

Tejal Gandhi, MD, Chief Safety and Transformation Officer at Press Ganey, and Hardeep Singh, MD, Chief of Health Policy, Quality and Informatics at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston.  The COVID-19 pandemic increases the risk of diagnostic error because the disease itself is new and knowledge of its clinical manifestations is still evolving.  In addition, both physical and psychological safety of clinicians and health system capacity have been compromised. This session discusses background related to diagnostic errors, their contributory factors and specifically, eight types of diagnostic errors anticipated in the COVID-19 pandemic. Drs. Gandhi and Hardeep also discuss a framework of solutions to reduce patient harm.