It can be quite clear that even a doctor with the best training and intentions can be wrong about a diagnosis. Misdiagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider decides that a patient has a particular illness or condition when, in fact, they have a different disease altogether. Misdiagnosis management as a form of risk management initiative is necessary to improve the quality of healthcare provided by hospitals and other healthcare institutions. It helps prevent wrong drug administration and medical procedures and prevents wastage of medical resources. Above all, managing misdiagnosis in hospitals helps prevent death and more medical complications. Montefiore Medical Center is no exception.
Rationale
Misdiagnosis has manifested itself at the Hospital in a few ways. There have been some cases of incorrect treatments in which patients were taken through medical procedures they did not qualify for and were unnecessary. Furthermore, delayed treatments and even no treatment at all have also occurred. The Hospital has had a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against it and one of its medical practitioners. Therefore the implementation of misdiagnosis management strategies will ensure that the hospital adheres to the state and local government of better healthcare to the citizens. Additionally, the locals will be safer while undergoing medical operations and procedures at the Hospital once they get wind of the strategies put in place to help curb the problem.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Support
A study carried out in Montefiore Medical Center indicate that pediatric patients admitted at the facility for imported malaria had a higher rate of misdiagnosis (Goldman-Yassen, Mony, Arguin, & Daily, 2016). Misdiagnosis in the emergency room or under primary care doctors was observed in a quarter of the patients' records analyzed. Montefiore Medical Center has a mandate to provide quality healthcare to the citizens of New York. Ensuring a misdiagnosis free environment facilitates the mandate. Therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that they offer health care services that are error-free and as per the quality required by the law.
Implementation
Laboratory services and procedures play a crucial role in healthcare provision. Miligy (2015) states that laboratory tests influence about 70 percent of medical decisions and that appropriate laboratory services have effects on patients' health in many ways, including misdiagnosis. Therefore, the implementation of the proposed risk management strategy would start from the healthcare facility's laboratory. First, awareness of the existence of misdiagnosis needs to be made within the institution. Secondly, the management needs to ensure that every laboratory professional has licensed. Then the laboratory testing procedures need to be subjected to quality control and quality management efforts. The institution will collaborate with the health officials from the state and the federal government. Finally, the facility can then build computer-based alert systems to improve diagnosis accuracy (Abimanyi-Ochom, Mudiyanselage, Catchpool, Firipis, Dona, & Watts, 2019).
Challenges
Montefiore Medical Center would face specific problems in the process of implementing the risk management strategy. First, there may be inadequate policies to guide the whole implementation process, which would render it ineffective in the end. There may also be a lack of consistency among the institution's healthcare workers and inadequate supervision. The management of the Hospital needs to formulate and implement adequate policies to govern the implementation process intended to eradicate misdiagnosis. Additionally, they need to carry out full supervision in collaboration with government health officials as well as external quality analysis firms if possible.
Evaluation
The primary way of evaluating the success of the strategy would be a comparison of the records of misdiagnosis cases before and a period after the implementation. A reduced number of misdiagnosis cases would indicate the success of the program. Additionally, improved quality of the health care services would also be an indicator of the success of the program.
Opportunities
The Hospital needs to ensure clear and precise communication between the laboratory department and the doctors so that test results can be transferred accurately between the two. Besides, they should avoid silent misdiagnosis in which the views, needs, and opinions of patients fail to be incorporated during the process of diagnosis.
References
Abimanyi-Ochom, J., Mudiyanselage, S. B., Catchpool, M., Firipis, M., Dona, S. W. A., & Watts, J. J. (2019). Strategies to reduce diagnostic errors: a systematic review. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 19(1), 174.
Goldman-Yassen, A. E., Mony, V. K., Arguin, P. M., & Daily, J. P. (2016). Higher Rates of Misdiagnosis in Pediatric Patients Versus Adults Hospitalized With Imported Malaria. Pediatric emergency care, 32(4), 227–231. https://doi.org/10.1097/PEC.0000000000000251
Miligy, D. A. (2015). Laboratory errors and patient safety. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 28(1), 2-10. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA-10-2008-0098
