How does work environment relate to diagnostic quality? A prospective, mixed methods study in primary care.
Improving diagnostic quality is a patient safety priority. In this study, researchers used audio-recorded encounters, clinical note review, and interviews in order to evaluate a tool assessing key elements of diagnostic quality during clinical encounters. Many elements were reliably included in the clinical note or encounter transcript (e.g., follow-up contingencies, red flags) but other elements were often missing (e.g., psychosocial/contextual information). The researchers found that burnout was more common among physicians recording fewer key diagnostic elements.