PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - H R Guly TI - The misdiagnosis severity score and doctors' perception of the severity of diagnostic errors. AID - 10.1136/emj.14.5.293 DP - 1997 Sep 01 TA - Journal of Accident & Emergency Medicine PG - 293--294 VI - 14 IP - 5 4099 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/14/5/293.short 4100 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/14/5/293.full SO - Arch Emerg Med1997 Sep 01; 14 AB - OBJECTIVE: To test the previously described misdiagnosis severity score (MSS) by comparing it with doctors' perceptions of the severity of diagnostic errors. METHODS: 14 scenarios of diagnostic errors were described on a questionnaire. These were given to 12 accident and emergency (A&E) consultants who were asked to indicate their assessment of the severity of the errors on a scale of 1 to 10. RESULTS: There was a highly significant concordance between doctors' rankings of the diagnostic errors, and between the MSS and the mean severity as assessed by the A&E consultants. CONCLUSIONS: It is reasonable to use the MSS as a measure of the severity of diagnostic errors.