Pairing patient pictures with their X-rays can help avoid mistakes

April 30, 2013

Looking at the wrong patient's X-ray images can lead to significant problems. When a grouping mistake or misidentification occurs, doctors could begin a procedure on the wrong patient or misdiagnose a patient, with potentially dangerous health consequences.

Medical errors like wrong-patient, wrong-procedure and wrong-site errors are so egregious, yet so preventable, they are called "never events" because they should never happen. Fortunately, it appears that simple improvements may help reduce the occurrence of these mistakes, as one study of X-ray misidentification recently showed.

Study analyzed X-ray misidentification

Researchers with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University recently conducted a study to analyze how X-ray mistakes involving the wrong patient's X-rays could be reduced. At the American Roentgen Ray Society's annual meeting, Dr. Srini Tridandapani presented the results of this study, which included photographs of patients' faces with their X-rays.

In the study, 200 pairs of X-rays were read by 10 radiologists, with each radiologist reading 20 pairs of X-rays, one pair per patient. In each set of 20 X-rays there were two to four pairs that had mismatched images--one from one patient and the second from a different patient.

When the radiologists first read the X-rays, no patient photographs were included. In this test, the radiologists identified three mismatched images out of 24 mismatched pairs, which is about 13 percent of the errors. In the second test, photographs of the patients' faces taken while the X-rays were performed were included with the images. When patients' photographs were included, the radiologists identified 16 mismatched images out of 25 mismatched pairs. This significantly increased the percentage of errors that were caught -- up to 64 percent.

According to NBC News, Dr. Tridandapani said the radiologists did not know they could use the photographs to identify the X-rays, and some even thought they were placed as an intended distraction, so they ignored them. When a third test was conducted with five radiologists who were told to use the photographs, however, the error detection rate increased to 94 percent.

NBC News reports that X-ray misidentification errors happen, on average, with 1 of every 10,000 patients. And although these mistakes are somewhat rare, the consequences can be life-altering and potentially life-threatening. If you or a loved one has suffered harm from X-ray misidentification or another wrong-patient error, contact an attorney with experience in medical malpractice claims who can help you get the compensation you deserve.

Article provided by Seigel Capozzi Law Firm LLC
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