| Medical
Malpractice Litigation Rarely Compensates Victims
In
1990, The Harvard Medical Practice Study was published. This
report, titled, "Patients, Doctors, and Lawyers: Medical
Injury, Malpractice Litigation and Patient Compensation in New
York," was conducted to estimate medical malpractice and
the injuries caused by medical malpractice in New York.The study
utilized physician reviewers of records and consultants who
were New York specialists.
According to the study, "adverse events" occurred
in 3.7% of the total hospitalizations. 27.6% of those adverse
events were due to negligence. 13.6% of the adverse events
led to death. Almost half of the adverse events were associated
with surgical procedures.The Harvard study also found that
75% of the negligence was a result of errors in diagnosing
the patients while 18% resulted from negligence with drug
complications.
As part of the Harvard study, records of the sample were
matched with statewide data on medical malpractice claims
in an attempt to discover the number of documented malpractice
claims relative to the documented acts of negligence. Of the
280 persons who had documented adverse events caused by medical
negligence only 8 people filed medical malpractice claims.
This represents an astonishing 2% of the documented medical
malpractice claims.
The Harvard study concluded: " Med mal litigation infrequently
compensates patients injured by med negligence and rarely
identifies and holds providers accountable for substandard
care. Med Mal claims are rarely made after patients are injured
negligently."
The study also estimated that only 6.5 of 1000 physicians
will be sued in a given year. However, physicians perceive
that number to be three times higer. When asked in a randomly
mailed survey about the number of new cases each year, physicians
estimated that 19.5 out of every 1000 physicians would be
sued in a given year. This data suggests that although physicians
perception of the risk of being sued might serve as a potential
deterrent to negligent conduct, that deterrence is based on
misperception of risk.
The Cochran Firm - Dallas, L.L.P.
Turtle Creek Centre, Suite 1400
3811 Turtle Creek Boulevard
Dallas, Texas
75219
phone:
214.651.4260
| fax: 214.651.4261
Edward H. Moore is Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law. Unless otherwise noted, not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
The statements and information provided on this web site are for the information of the recipient only. This site is not intended to provide legal advice and no attorney-client relationship should be deemed to arise from the receipt this page and its associated pages. |
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