A Diagnostic error in the first Ebola patient in USA

The first patient diagnosed with Ebola infection in USA went to an Emergency Department with symptoms. He communicates to a nurse his recent trip from Liberia but this information was not managed properly for the whole team..

This is a clear case of Diagnostic error associated with the following aspects:

.Cognitive aspects:for doctors and nurses this person was another afroamerican with a cold. Probably the patient also woul speak fluent english .

.System aspects: basically a communication failure among the members of the team. We don,t know if there was electronic medical records or written orders.

Overconfidence was also a bias in this case.