Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most serious complication of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and remains the third leading cause of cardiovascular death in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of cases each year. Most PE-related deaths result not from treatment failure but from missed prevention opportunities or diagnostic error. Because many cases of VTE and PE are preventable, failures in recognition and diagnosis are significant contributors to patient harm and malpractice claims. Clinicians must maintain a high level of vigilance to improve patient safety and reduce adverse outcomes. The delay or failure to diagnose PE is addressed in two separate activities. This activity focuses on risk factors and vital sign abnormalities associated with missed or delayed PE diagnosis. Through case-based discussion, it highlights how failure to recognize risk factors and abnormal vital sign patterns particularly pulse temperature disparity in the setting of tachycardia can contribute to diagnostic error. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: integrate awareness of the reasons for the failure to diagnose PE into clinical practice in order to improve patient safety, improve documentation and decrease the risk of exposure to medical malpractice; employ risk factor analysis for PE as a part of history-taking for patients who present with associated signs or symptoms; and recognize the presence of pulse-temperature disparity in patients with tachycardia in order to improve timely diagnosis of PE.
Credit & MOC Details
Credit information is provided by the course provider. We recommend confirming credit eligibility with the provider or your licensing board before starting the activity.
Credit types
MOC types
FDA REMS
Qualifies for MIPS
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