Claim Review
Page 5
Risk Management Considerations
- Education for both physicians and staff that focuses on race, gender, age and atypical symptoms of cardiac distress
- Heightened awareness that ECG changes and elevated cardiac enzymes are not always present for some cardiac events
- Ongoing review and evaluation of patients who present with vague or atypical symptoms and their subsequent management
- The inclusion of family history of heart disease in the H&P
- Consultation with a cardiologist when atypical circumstances and symptoms present
- Policies and procedures to allow for the admission of patients whose symptoms are vague or difficult to determine with the implementation of clinical markers to monitor changes in the patient’s cardiac status
- Performance of a Root Cause Analysis (RCA), with the involvement of all relevant staff, when an event of misdiagnosis of AMI occurs
While these risk management recommendations are not a guarantee of avoiding a misdiagnosis of AMI, they can help mitigate your exposure to this risk.
Chest pain, in any setting, should be cause for concern. It is one of the most common and complex symptoms for which patients seek emergency care. Missing a life-threatening condition results in potentially serious morbidity and mortality to the patient, and represents a frequent and expensive cause of malpractice suits.