AI Article Synopsis
- A study at a tertiary care center found that 90% of preliminary death certificates (PDCs) contained at least one error, with 39% having major errors regarding cause of death.
- Major errors were notably more prevalent in autopsy cases (50% compared to 28% in non-autopsy cases), indicating that autopsy findings helped clarify cause of death.
- The research underscores the importance of pathologist review in minimizing death certificate errors before final approval.
Article Abstract
Background: Death certificate (DC) errors are common. At our institution, all deaths have a preliminary death certificate (PDC) written by a clinician and then revised by a pathologist prior to the clinician signing the final death certificate (FDC). In autopsy cases, the FDC is signed by the pathologist who performs the autopsy.
Methods: A total of 100 in-hospital deaths (50 with autopsy and 50 without) occurred in 2020 were arbitrarily selected from a tertiary care center. All PDCs and FDCs were compared to identify/classify errors as major (incorrect cause of death (COD) or significant contributing factors) or minor (abbreviations, inappropriate non-essential contributing factors, immediate/intermediate COD errors). Frequency of PDC errors was compared by autopsy status, duration of hospital stay and PDC author.
Results: Ninety percent of cases had at least one PDC error and 39% had a major error. Major errors were more common in autopsy cases (50% versus 28%, P = 0.035), although minor/overall errors were not. Error rates did not significantly differ for the other variables assessed.
Conclusions: There is significance of having a pathologist review and revise DCs before they are signed. The increased frequency in major errors in cases with autopsy suggests that autopsy findings provided additional information to elucidate COD.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdad255 | DOI Listing |
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