We believe that reframing medicolegal case coding systems to better identify the influence of team, organizational, and system factors will increase the utility of this analysis in patient safety research, and health care quality improvement.
IMPORTANCE:
Although rapid treatment improves outcomes for patients presenting with sepsis, early detection can be difficult, especially in otherwise healthy adults.
OBJECTIVES:
Using medico-legal data, we aimed to identify areas of focus to assist with early recognition of sepsis.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:
Retrospective descriptive design. We analyzed closed medico-legal cases involving physicians from a national database repository at the Canadian Medical Protective Association. The study included cases closed between 2011 and 2020 that had documented peer expert criticism of a diagnostic issue related to sepsis or relevant infections.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:
We used univariate statistics to describe patients and physicians and applied published frameworks to classify contributing factors (provider, team, system) and diagnostic pitfalls based on peer expert criticisms.
RESULTS:
Of 162 involved patients, the median age was 53 years (interquartile range [IQR], 34–66 yr) and mortality was 49%. Of 218 implicated physicians, 169 (78%) were from family medicine, emergency medicine, or surgical specialties. Eighty patients (49%) made multiple visits to outpatient care leading up to sepsis recognition/hospitalization (median = two visits; IQR, 2–4). Almost 40% of patients were admitted to the ICU. Deficient assessments, such as failing to consider sepsis or not reassessing the patient prior to discharge, contributed to the majority of cases (81%).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Sepsis continues to be a challenging diagnosis for clinicians. Multiple visits to outpatient care may be an early warning sign requiring vigilance in the patient assessment.
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