Refining a Framework to Enhance Communication in the Emergency Department During the Diagnostic Process: An eDelphi Approach

Background

Emergency departments (EDs) are susceptible to diagnostic error. Suboptimal communication between the patient and the interdisciplinary care team increases risk to diagnostic safety. The role of communication remains underrepresented in existing diagnostic decision-making conceptual models.

Methods

The authors used eDelphi methodology, whereby data are collected electronically, to achieve consensus among an expert panel of 18 clinicians, patients, family members, and other participants on a refined ED–based diagnostic decision-making framework that integrates several potential opportunities for communication to enhance diagnostic quality. This study examined the entire diagnostic process in the ED, from prehospital to discharge or transfer to inpatient care, and identified where communication breakdowns could occur. After four iterative rounds of the eDelphi process, including a final validation round by all participants, the project's a priori consensus threshold of 80% agreement was reached.

Results

The authors developed a final framework that positions communication more prominently in the diagnostic process in the ED and enhances the original National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and ED–adapted NASEM frameworks. Specific points in the ED journey were identified where more attention to communication might be helpful. Two specific types of communication—information exchange and shared understanding—were identified as high priority for optimal outcomes. Ideas for communication-focused interventions to prevent diagnostic error in the ED fell into three categories: patient-facing, clinician-facing, and system-facing interventions.

Conclusion

This project's refinement of the NASEM framework adapted to the ED can be used to develop communications-focused interventions to reduce diagnostic error in this highly complex and error-prone setting.