Changes in diagnoses occur frequently during interhospital transfers and are associated with increased likelihood of patient death, according to a study published in Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Researchers merged diagnosis coding before and after hospital transfer with responses from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. They studied 180,337 adult patients transferred between 473 acute care hospitals in New York, Florida, Iowa, Utah and Vermont from 2011 to 2013.
The study shows discordance in diagnoses occurred in 85.5 percent of all patients. Seventy-three percent of patients gained a new diagnosis following transfer, while 47 percent of patients lost a diagnosis.
Researchers also found diagnostic discordance was linked to increased adjusted inpatient mortality and allowed for improved mortality prediction.
"Health information exchange adoption was associated with decreased discordance and improved patient outcomes," study authors noted.