The committee that authored the Institute of Medicine's "Improving Diagnosis in Health Care" report made numerous recommendations to address eight main goals to improve diagnosis and reduce diagnostic error.
For the sake of the report, the IOM defined a diagnostic error as "the failure to establish an accurate and timely explanation of the patient's health problem(s) or communicate that explanation to the patient."
Highlighted below are the eight goals for all diagnostic team members and settings of care to prevent these diagnostic incidents outlined in the report.
1. Encourage more effective teamwork in the diagnostic process among healthcare workers, patients and their loved ones
2. Improve education and training in the diagnostic process for healthcare workers
3. Confirm that health information technologies support patients and healthcare professionals in the diagnostic process
4. Design and implement approaches to identify, learn from and reduce diagnostic errors and near misses in clinical practice
5. Establish both a work system and culture that supports improvements in the diagnostic process and performance
6. Develop an environment and medical liability system in which reporting diagnostic errors and near misses is encouraged
7. Design an environment in which payment and care delivery supports the diagnostic process
8. Dedicate funding for research on the diagnostic process and diagnostic errors
To read the full report, click here.
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