Pneumonia often misdiagnosed on patient readmissions
Patients were misdiagnosed with pneumonia at an alarming rate when they were readmitted to the hospital shortly after a previous hospitalization for the same illness, according to two Henry Ford Hospital companion studies.
Researchers say the misdiagnoses led to overuse of antibiotics and increased health care costs. Pneumonia ranks second to congestive heart failure as the reason for readmission within 30 days of a previous hospitalization.
Led by Henry Ford Infectious Diseases physicians Hiren Pokharna, M.D., and Norman Markowitz, M.D., researchers found that:
72 percent of patients were misdiagnosed with pneumonia upon readmission to the same hospital.
African-Americans were twice more likely than Caucasians to be misdiagnosed with pneumonia…
72 percent of the misdiagnoses occurred in the Emergency Department.
Fewer than 33 percent of patients had any outpatient follow-up care prior to their readmission.
“This also points to the importance of using X-ray for ruling out pneumonia. And once pneumonia is ruled out, the antibiotics can be discontinued…”
Health care associated pneumonia is a newly recognized form of pneumonia in patients who had recent close contact with a health care system, either through a hospital, outpatient dialysis center, nursing home or long-term care facility. The classification was added with the shift from hospital-based care to home-based care.
Cripes. So, adding another human aspect to medicine seems to increase the likelihood of misdiagnosis. Or is it just reliance on ER treatment for people without healthcare insurance?
Not inspiring a lot of confidence here, folks.
