AHRQ Patient Safety Network ► Development and validation of electronic health record–based triggers to detect delays in follow-up of abnormal lung imaging findings.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network



Development and validation of electronic health record–based triggers to detect delays in follow-up of abnormal lung imaging findings.

Murphy DR, Thomas EJ, Meyer AND, Singh H. Radiology. 2015 May 11; [Epub ahead of print].

Delays in follow-up of abnormal test results are known to contribute to delayed and missed diagnosis. Investigators developed and validated an electronic trigger to identify potential delays in follow-up of abnormal chest computed tomography scans. This study found that more than half of the flagged cases had a true diagnostic delay. This work should lead to prospective evaluation of trigger approaches to enhance test result follow-up.

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