Medical Malpractice in Orthopedic Surgery: A Westlaw-Based Demographic Analysis

Abstract

A recent study that evaluated the risk of facing a malpractice claim by physician specialty found that orthopedic surgeons were at a significantly greater risk of being sued than other medical specialists. To date, no studies have characterized trends in orthopedic surgery malpractice claims. The Westlaw legal database was used to locate state and federal jury verdicts and settlements related to medical malpractice and orthopedic surgery from 2010 to 2016. Eighty-one cases were analyzed. The mean age of the affected patients and/or plaintiffs was 53.4 years. Spine surgery (21 cases; 25.9%), knee surgery (17 cases; 21.0%), and hip surgery (11 cases; 13.6%) were litigated most often. Procedural error (71 cases; 87.7%) and negligence (58 cases; 71.6%) were the 2 most commonly cited reasons for litigation. The jury found in favor of the defendant in most (50 cases; 61.7%) of the cases. The mean plaintiff (17 cases; 21.0%) verdict payout was $3,015,872, and the mean settlement (13 cases; 16.0%) value was $1,570,833. Unnecessary surgery (odds ratio [OR], 12.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.91-108.46; P=.040) and surgery resulting in death (OR, 26.26; 95% CI, 2.55-497.42; P=.040) were significant predictors of a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Patient death (OR, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.01-0.38; P=.021) and male patient sex (OR, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.09-0.71; P=.033) were significant negative predictors of a verdict in favor of the defendant. The jury found in favor of the defendant orthopedic surgeon in most cases. Procedural error and/or negligence were cited most commonly by the plaintiffs as the bases for the claims. Verdicts in favor of the plaintiffs resulted in payouts nearly double those of settlements. [Orthopedics. 2018; 41(5):e615-e620.].

Medical malpractice in Iran: A systematic review

“…In the study of Asad et al, the most common causes of complaint of medical malpractice by patients were delay in the diagnosis and lack of follow-up and postoperative management (68). Nicole et al, in their study, showed that 88% of the errors in orthopaedic surgeries were due to procedural errors and negligence (69). Acting based on medical guidelines and protocols, holding a counselling session to answer the questions of patients before the surgery, eliminating the financial relationship between the physician and patient completely are measures that can help prevent patient complaints and medical malpractice (70)(71)(72).…”

Characteristics of the medical malpractice cases against orthopedists in China between 2016 and 2017

“…This is the easiest medical malpractice prevention measure to develop. Improved communication, patient monitoring and orthopedist education can significantly reduce the number of medical malpractice incidents [ 20 ]. It is essential that the physician-in-charge should personally manage and communicate with patients.…”

A Qualitative Analysis of Malpractice Litigation in Cardiology Using Case Summaries Through a National Legal Database Analysis

“…The WestlawNext™ legal database (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY) was used to characterize cardiology malpractice-related state and federal jury verdict and settlement reports in the United States between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 [9]. The WestlawNext™ registry is widely used for legal research and incorporates multiple legal databases with an advanced search algorithm [10].…”

“…The following were extracted from the remaining cases for each verdict or settlement: the state in which the trial was conducted, defendant specialty and membership in hospital group, plaintiff age and sex, reasons for litigation, patient death, jury verdict, and value of monetary award. The reasons for litigation were determined for each case through review of available case files and cases were classified with one or more reasons for litigation as used by previous malpractice studies [9, 11, 14]. Reasons for litigation were characterized by our reviewers as failure to treat, failure to diagnose, failure to refer/order diagnostic tests, procedural error, severe hospitalization, unnecessary surgery, lack of informed consent, and death.…”