PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - H R Guly
TI  - A scale for measuring the severity of diagnostic errors in accident and emergency departments.
AID  - 10.1136/emj.14.5.290
DP  - 1997 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Accident & Emergency Medicine
PG  - 290--292
VI  - 14
IP  - 5
4099  - http://emj.bmj.com/content/14/5/290.short
4100  - http://emj.bmj.com/content/14/5/290.full
SO  - Arch Emerg Med1997 Sep 01; 14
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To design and test a simple scale for measuring the severity of diagnostic errors occurring in accident and emergency (A&E) departments. METHODS: Empirical design of a scale which indicates the severity of errors on a scale of 1 to 7. It is obtained by adding two scores which indicate the additional treatment which a patient would have received and the follow up which would have been organised if the correct diagnosis had been made initially. RESULTS: The misdiagnosis severity score (MSS) revealed 166 diagnostic errors in injuries treated in an A&E department over one years. The scoring system allowed the more significant errors to be separated from the less significant ones. CONCLUSIONS: The MSS proved useful in describing the errors made in an A&E department.