According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, only one-percent of doctors and physicians accrued one-third of all medical malpractice paid claims over the past ten years. Many of these physicians had the following qualities in common:
Most were male
Most were of older age
Most were practicing in a wide range of subspecialties such as obstetrics-gynecology and surgical subspecialties
Most had previous claims filed against them
The lead author of the study, from Stanford School of Law and Stanford Medical School, states that certain factors may be contributing to these malpractice claims, such as poor communication skills and provision of substandard care. The author states that it is important these factors are identified and remedied during an early stage to prevent issues from occurring within the healthcare system.
The Study
To find accurate results, the team examined 66,426 claims within the National Practitioner Data Bank that were compensated against Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine and Doctors of Medicine in America from 2005 through 2014. To obtain fair results, the study excluded claims against doctors over the age of 65. In order to pinpoint characteristics of the doctors with multiple claims, researchers examined the following qualities:
Qualifications
Paid claims
Age
Sex
Trainee status
Specialty
Practice location
Location of medical school
The results showed that although 6% of all active doctors throughout the United States during that ten-year period had a paid claim, only 1% of these doctors with no less than two paid claims accounted for 32% of all filed claims.
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