ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT04393909PSLL2-0Updated Jul 26, 2022

Improving Safety of Diagnosis and Therapy in the Inpatient Setting

An interventional study of Diagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum and Diagnostic Timeout in Delirium, Confusion and Mental Status Change, sponsored by Brigham and Women's Hospital. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-07-26.

Sponsored by Brigham and Women's Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 10 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jul 2019, registered May 2020).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
700
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

To improve the safety of diagnosis and therapy for a set of conditions and undifferentiated symptoms for hospitalized patients, the investigators will employ a set of methods and tools from the disciplines of systems engineering, human factors, quality improvement,and data analytics to thoroughly analyze the problem, design and develop potential solutions that leverage existing current technological infrastructure, and implement and evaluate the final interventions. The investigators will engage the interdisciplinary care team and patient (or their caregivers) to ensure treatment trajectories match the anticipated course for working diagnoses (or symptoms), and whether they are in line with patient and clinician expectations. The investigators will use an Interrupted time series (ITS) design to assess impact on diagnostic errors that lead to patient harm. The investigators will perform quantitative and qualitative evaluations using implementation science principles to understand if the interventions worked, and why or why not.

Read the detailed description

The goal of this study is to improve the safety of diagnosis and therapy for a set of conditions and undifferentiated symptoms for hospitalized patients. The investigators will employ a set of methods and tools from the disciplines of systems engineering, human factors, quality improvement, and implementation science to thoroughly analyze the problem, design and develop potential solutions that leverage the current technological infrastructure, and implement and evaluate the final interventions.

The aims of this study are to:

  1. Analyze the problem of diagnostic error over the acute episode of care, identifying system and cognitive factors for a set of morbid, costly common conditions and undifferentiated symptoms by using system engineering and human factors methods, as well as electronic health record and administrative data review.
  2. Design, develop, and iteratively refine intervention components using lessons learned from problem analysis and a participatory process that involves patients, clinicians, and institutional stakeholders.
  3. Implement an intervention for patient and clinician subjects on general medicine units. Using a pre-post, interrupted time series study design, the investigators will evaluate the effect of the intervention primarily on diagnostic and therapeutic errors. The investigators will use mixed methods to understand barriers and facilitators of implementation.
02

Conditions studied

  • Delirium
  • Confusion
  • Mental Status Change
  • Back Pain
  • Hip Pain Chronic
  • Chest Pain
  • Asthma
  • COPD
  • Cellulitis
  • Soft Tissue Infections
  • Cough
  • Deep Vein Thrombosis
  • Pulmonary Embolism
  • Venous Thromboembolism
  • Dyspnea
  • Electrolyte Metabolism Abnormal
  • Fever
  • Failure to Thrive
  • Weakness
  • Protein-Calorie Malnutrition
  • Headache
  • Neck Pain
  • Hypoxia
  • Pneumonia
  • Sepsis
  • Syncope
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Leg Pain
  • Abdominal Pain

Keywords

  • Diagnostic errors
03

In context

Delirium

933 studies on the registry are indexed under Delirium; 190 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 700 is above the median of 112 across 550 interventional studies indexed under Delirium.

Browse Delirium studies →

Lead sponsor

Brigham and Women's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 1,267 studies on the registry; 228 are open to participants now.

Of its 116 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 65 (56%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 18 or older
  • Adult patients admitted to General Medicine Services at Brigham and Women's Hospital during the 21-months study data collection period
  • English speakers
  • Patients who were diagnosed with any of the following conditions and symptoms upon admission:
  • Abdominal pain
  • Altered mental status/ delirium / confusion
  • Asthma / (COPD)
  • Cellulitis / soft tissue infection
  • Chest pain
  • Cough
  • Deep vein thrombosis / pulmonary embolism / venous thromboembolism
  • Dyspnea / short of breath
  • Failure to thrive
  • Pneumonia
  • Protein-calorie malnutrition
  • Sepsis
  • Other conditions typical of general medicine patients

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not pregnant women, prisoners and institutionalized individuals
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Factorial assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
700 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Control group

    Patients do not have access to the Patient Dx Questionnaire.

    Behavioral: Diagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum · Behavioral: Diagnostic Timeout · Behavioral: Enhancements to Epic-integrated Quality & Safety Dashboard

  • Active comparator
    Patient Dx Questionnaire User group

    Patient enrollees will be randomized to receive the Patient Dx Questionnaire administered by the research staff at the bedside.

    Behavioral: Diagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum · Behavioral: Diagnostic Timeout · Behavioral: Patient Diagnostic (Dx) Questionnaire · Behavioral: Enhancements to Epic-integrated Quality & Safety Dashboard

Interventions

  • BehavioralDiagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum

    A Diagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum will consist of an interactive, one-hour "teach-the-teacher" workshop delivered to resident-attending pairs early on during their inpatient medicine rotation. During the workshop, we will discuss the motivation behind teaching diagnostic uncertainty, review factors that may predict risk of diagnostic error during hospitalization, introduce the framework. Each resident-attending pair will work through a case-based exercise focused on managing learners' diagnostic uncertainty during rounds. Our research team will also conduct Training for clinical staff working on intervention units and will provide "at-the-elbow" support during the intervention period of the main trial.

  • BehavioralDiagnostic Timeout

    A "Diagnostic Timeout" is a structured "pocket guide" that clinicians may use to address uncertainty in a step-wise approach for patients who have risk factors for diagnostic error. This tool can be used during or after clinical rounds, inside or outside of a patient's room if the patient is agreeable. The "Diagnostic Timeout" will be introduced as part of the Diagnostic Uncertainty Educational Curriculum as well as Training.

  • BehavioralPatient Diagnostic (Dx) Questionnaire

    We will administer a survey, the Dx Questionnaire, to patients which asks a series of questions on communication regarding diagnosis with the care team. Patients admitted to inpatient units within the prior 24 hours will be approached after asking the patient's nurse to determine whether it is the appropriate time to approach for enrollment. Upon explaining the objectives of the survey and obtaining verbal informed consent, patients will be asked to complete the Dx Questionnaire via REDCap on an iPad. Alternatively, the research assistant administering the survey will go through the Dx Questionnaire with the patient and record their answers in REDCap on their behalf. If patients' answers indicate a gap in communication (i.e., an answer of "No" on a question), the Research Assistant will ask for permission to follow-up within the next few days and will relay the gap in communication to the patients' care team (i.e., nurse).

  • BehavioralEnhancements to Epic-integrated Quality & Safety Dashboard

    Epic-integrated Quality and Safety Dashboard, currently in operational use at BWH, will be enhanced to include a new diagnostic safety column. Clinical staff will receive Training and "at-the-elbow" support by the research team upon implementation.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Diagnostic error

    Data Source: Chart audit Analytic Variables: * % patients with diagnostic error * % patients with diagnostic error with actual or potential AE (i.e., harmful DE) * % patients with diagnostic error with actual or potential AE that was severe (i.e., harmful and severe DE) * % patients with diagnostic error with actual or potential AE that was preventable (i.e., harmful, severe, and preventable DE)

    Time frame: 30 days (at most) from admission to the hospital

  2. "Safe diagnosis"

    Data Source: Chart audit Analytic variables: • % patients with correct diagnosis or therapy established within 24 hours of admission

    Time frame: 30 days (at most) from admission to the hospital

Secondary outcomes

  1. Healthcare resource utilization

    Data Source: EDW (enterprise data warehouse) Analytic variables: • % patients with ≥ 1 unscheduled ED visit or readmission

    Time frame: 30 days after discharge from the hospital

  2. Patient satisfaction

    HCAPHS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems)patient satisfaction survey: The survey is composed of 27 items: 18 substantive items that encompass critical aspects of the hospital experience (communication with doctors, communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, cleanliness of the hospital environment, quietness of the hospital environment, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information, overall rating of hospital, and recommendation of hospital).

    Time frame: 30 days after discharge from the hospital

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts 02120, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 26, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04393909
Collaborators
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Responsible party
Anuj K. Dalal, MD (Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 19, 2020
Start date
Jul 1, 2019
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2021
Completion
Dec 30, 2021
Last update
Jul 26, 2022

Study contacts

Anuj K Dalal, MD
principal investigator · Brigham and Women's Hospital
David W Bates, MD, MSc
principal investigator · Brigham and Women's Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion