TY - JOUR
T1 - Diagnostic Discordance, Health Information Exchange, and Inter-Hospital Transfer Outcomes
T2 - a Population Study
AU - Usher, Michael
AU - Sahni, Nishant
AU - Herrigel, Dana
AU - Simon, Gyorgy
AU - Melton, Genevieve B.
AU - Joseph, Anne
AU - Olson, Andrew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Society of General Internal Medicine.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - Background: Studying diagnostic error at the population level requires an understanding of how diagnoses change over time. Objective: To use inter-hospital transfers to examine the frequency and impact of changes in diagnosis on patient risk, and whether health information exchange can improve patient safety by enhancing diagnostic accuracy. Design: Diagnosis coding before and after hospital transfer was merged with responses from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey for a cohort of patients transferred between hospitals to identify predictors of mortality. Participants: Patients (180,337) 18 years or older transferred between 473 acute care hospitals from NY, FL, IA, UT, and VT from 2011 to 2013. Main Measures: We identified discordant Elixhauser comorbidities before and after transfer to determine the frequency and developed a weighted score of diagnostic discordance to predict mortality. This was included in a multivariate model with inpatient mortality as the dependent variable. We investigated whether health information exchange (HIE) functionality adoption as reported by hospitals improved diagnostic discordance and inpatient mortality. Key Results: Discordance in diagnoses occurred in 85.5% of all patients. Seventy-three percent of patients gained a new diagnosis following transfer while 47% of patients lost a diagnosis. Diagnostic discordance was associated with increased adjusted inpatient mortality (OR 1.11 95% CI 1.10–1.11, p < 0.001) and allowed for improved mortality prediction. Bilateral hospital HIE participation was associated with reduced diagnostic discordance index (3.69 vs. 1.87%, p < 0.001) and decreased inpatient mortality (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.89–0.99, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Diagnostic discordance commonly occurred during inter-hospital transfers and was associated with increased inpatient mortality. Health information exchange adoption was associated with decreased discordance and improved patient outcomes.
AB - Background: Studying diagnostic error at the population level requires an understanding of how diagnoses change over time. Objective: To use inter-hospital transfers to examine the frequency and impact of changes in diagnosis on patient risk, and whether health information exchange can improve patient safety by enhancing diagnostic accuracy. Design: Diagnosis coding before and after hospital transfer was merged with responses from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey for a cohort of patients transferred between hospitals to identify predictors of mortality. Participants: Patients (180,337) 18 years or older transferred between 473 acute care hospitals from NY, FL, IA, UT, and VT from 2011 to 2013. Main Measures: We identified discordant Elixhauser comorbidities before and after transfer to determine the frequency and developed a weighted score of diagnostic discordance to predict mortality. This was included in a multivariate model with inpatient mortality as the dependent variable. We investigated whether health information exchange (HIE) functionality adoption as reported by hospitals improved diagnostic discordance and inpatient mortality. Key Results: Discordance in diagnoses occurred in 85.5% of all patients. Seventy-three percent of patients gained a new diagnosis following transfer while 47% of patients lost a diagnosis. Diagnostic discordance was associated with increased adjusted inpatient mortality (OR 1.11 95% CI 1.10–1.11, p < 0.001) and allowed for improved mortality prediction. Bilateral hospital HIE participation was associated with reduced diagnostic discordance index (3.69 vs. 1.87%, p < 0.001) and decreased inpatient mortality (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.89–0.99, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Diagnostic discordance commonly occurred during inter-hospital transfers and was associated with increased inpatient mortality. Health information exchange adoption was associated with decreased discordance and improved patient outcomes.
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U2 - 10.1007/s11606-018-4491-x
DO - 10.1007/s11606-018-4491-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 29845466
AN - SCOPUS:85047660138
SN - 0884-8734
VL - 33
SP - 1447
EP - 1453
JO - Journal of general internal medicine
JF - Journal of general internal medicine
IS - 9
ER -