8:1 ratio of adverse evenets caused by negligence to malpractice claims
most of the claims which do go to court are not valid
Results
Adverse Events and Adverse Events Due to Negligence
1% caused by negligence
Analysis of Matched records
0.11% malpractice claims
Satewide Estimates of Adverse Events Due to Negligence Not Resulting in Malpractice Claims
98%
58% recovered within 6 months
5,400 did not recover--over half of these were under 70
Follow-up Reviews of Medical Records and Claims
Relative Frequency of Negligence and Malpractice Claims
claims occur only 13-14% the rate of injuries
however only 1.53% of injuries result in claims
Discussion
don’t know why patients don’t sue more often when they are injured--relationship with physicians, fear of lawyers, minor injuries
criteria in civil litigation is different--jury, not physicians decide if the case has merit
lawyers only take cases they feel will win