Physician Lawsuits Not Uncommon, AMA Says

For every 100 physicians, there are 95 medical lawsuits, according to a report from the American Medical Association. With nearly an overall average of one liability claim per physician, the report calls for tort reform for lower healthcare costs.

Why is it that physicians, at some point in their careers, will face the dreaded 'L'-word—lawsuit? What factors might make a physician likely to face a malpractice claim?

The report gathers data from more than 5,800 physicians in 42 specialties between 2007 and 2008. The report indicates that some physicians face medical liability claims more often than others. In reality, only 42% of all physicians are sued during their career. That means, 22% of physicians are sued more than once.

Despite the overwhelming statistics on overall claim incidence, a lawsuit is not as common as it seems.

"?In any given year, being sued is a rare event. Only 5% of physicians had claims filed against them in that time frame. Over the length of a career, however, claims are much more common," states the report.

Physicians might see more lawsuits because the longer they are in practice, they have more time and, therefore, greater exposure to malpractice claims. For instance, older physicians are more likely to face a claim because they are in practice longer than younger physicians; nearly 61% of physicians age 55 and over have ever been sued.

Along with age, claim frequency varied by gender, specialty, and practice ownership. For example, male physicians are twice as likely to be sued more than women. There could be a number of reasons of why men face malpractice claims more often then women. Men have traditionally been the medical workforce longer and work more hours per week than women; therefore, men have a longer time to accumulate claims, according to the report. Male physicians are also more often practice owners, compared to women; practice owners see more claims than nonpractice owners. Men also tend to specialize in general surgery and obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN), two the highest accumulated incidence of lawsuits of all the specialties.

About 70% of both general surgeons and OB/GYNs are sued. Pediatricians (27%) and psychiatrists (22%) were the least likely to be sued.

Does a claim = a medical error?

"Claim frequency should not be used as an estimate of the error rate or malpractice rate in medicine," states the report.

Most claims (65%) are dropped, dismissed, or withdrawn. Another 25.7% of suits are settled out of court, and 4.5% were decided using an alternative method. Five percent went to trial; in those cases, 90% of the time, the physician won.

One reason why 22% of physicians are sued twice or more is that practice owners are more often sued than nonpractice owners. Known as the doctrine of respondeat superior, the employer of a practice can be held accountable for a tort even though the claim stems from the care provided by the employee. For example, if an employed physician was accused of medical malpractice, the practice owner could be sued. That means, one physician owner could rack up more malpractice claims than other physicians without necessarily committing more medical errors.

Costs of claims

Even though most claims are dropped, lawsuits do not go without financial consequences. The costs of indemnity payments can range from $22,000 for dropped or dismissed claims to $100,000 for those claims that go to trial.

"This litigious climate hurts patients' access to physician care at a time when the nation is working to reduce unnecessary healthcare costs," said AMA immediate past-President J. James Rohack, MD, in a statement to HealthLeaders Media.

The AMA, whose position is comprehensive medical liability reform on state and federal levels, supports a cap on damages, according to Rohack.

"The findings in this report validate the need for national and state medical liability reform to rein in our out-of-control system where lawsuits are a matter of when, not if, for physicians," Rohack said.

Karen M. Cheung is associate editor at HCPro, Inc., contributing writer for HealthLeaders Media, and blogger for www.MedicalStaffLeader.com. She can be contacted at kcheung@hcpro.com.