AHRQ: Diagnostic safety in the Covid era: Let’s not squander the opportunity (2 November 2020)

Summary

As we seek to develop a national healthcare system that delivers true 21st century care, we are confronted by a COVID-19 pandemic that has identified numerous challenges. Among the most important: the need to provide correct diagnoses.

Definitive answers about diagnosis are critical not only for patients, but also for their families and others around them. Consequential questions gnaw at us: Are we diagnosing COVID-19 correctly? Are we missing cases? How do we know? How can we improve?

Gopal Khanna and Jeff Brady are hopeful that some of the changes that have resulted from the US's battle against the pandemic will spark the long-term improvements in diagnostic safety that will strengthen the system’s ability to address COVID-19 and other challenges we face.