A scale for measuring the severity of diagnostic errors in accident and emergency departments.

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.