Missing pelvic inflammatory disease? Substantial differences in the rate at which doctors diagnose PID

Abstract

Objectives: The clinical diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is subjective. Our aim was to determine if the pattern of diagnosis of PID among experienced clinicians varied compared with the diagnosis of genital warts. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 325 PID diagnoses made by experienced clinicians at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Australia (2002-2006), where doctors saw 21 785 unselected female patients in a walk-in service. We compared the proportion of female patients diagnosed as having PID and genital warts between doctors and then compared doctors above (high diagnosing) and below (low diagnosing) the mean rate of PID diagnosis. Results: There were significan..