How do Woodland Park doctors fail patients? Physicians may be accused of medical malpractice when they do something wrong, like prescribe an incorrect drug, or when they fail to take action, like not performing a medically recommended procedure. Doctors also may be liable for medical equipment that works improperly or harm caused by staff.
A study recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine isolated mistakes caused by internal medicine physicians. Predictably, most errors among internists occurred in diagnosing and managing patients’ health conditions, the doctors’ prime area of expertise. Researchers surmised doctors who spent more time doing procedures than evaluating patients probably also made a majority of mistakes while performing their specialties.
Researchers drew information from 33,747 records among a quarter million closed cases from the Physician Insurers Association of America. Medical liability files spanned 1985 to 2009 and focused only on claims against internists. Misdiagnosis was the most common error followed closely by non-medical breaches of patient care, like faulty equipment, combining for more than half of all malpractice claims.
Using files from the insurers’ trade association painted a realistic picture of internists’ medical errors. The Physician Insurers Association processes over 60 percent of all medical liability complaints nationwide, a highly-representative portion of an estimated 45,000 annual cases. Along with reasons internists made mistakes, researchers also checked how the cases were resolved.
Insurance proceeds were paid in over one-third of all cases involving incorrect diagnoses. Less than five percent of non-administrative error claims resulted in payments. Claims were paid for about 28 percent of performance errors, 29 percent of drug mistakes and 31 percent of cases involving doctor subordinate errors.
Median payments were fairly consistent among the top five errors. Payments ranged from $89,600 for medication errors to $183,300 for misdiagnoses. Reports didn’t state whether any internists’ claims involved litigation, which is common when patients and their attorneys feel an insurer’s proposed settlement is unfair.
Source: MedPage Today, “Top 5 Reasons Why Internists Are Sued” David Pittman, Apr. 28, 2014
