Physicians Identify Organizational Barriers Contributing to Delayed Diagnosis

​Physicians view organizational cultural issues and communication barriers—among colleagues and between providers and patients—as far greater contributors to missed and delayed diagnoses than factors such as their own cognitive and decision-making processes, according to the results of a series of focus groups published in the October 2014 Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. The six two-hour focus groups included a total of 25 physicians. In the 12 hours of interviews, the authors identified three distinct themes of factors the physicians believed to be responsible for missed and delayed diagnoses.