A new study reveals that as many as 75 percent of hospital tests are not followed up and this failure can have serious consequences for patients, including delayed or missed diagnoses and even death.
The study is a "study of studies," and looked at 12 international studies. The work showed that between 1% and 75% of tests run on ER patients were not followed up after the patients were discharged. For inpatient tests the rate was 20% to 65%.
The study is published in the Feb. 8 edition of the journal BMJ Quality and Safety.