Professional Liability Crisis: A Road Map to Success

Lessons from a decade of technical–scientific opinions in obstetrical litigation

“…An infringement of the 'leges artis' was suggested in 9.4% of cases with this conclusion being inconclusive in 6.3%. In prenatal diagnosis, a causal link was established in 11.1% of cases and was incon- The annual caseload of Medical Liability in Obstetrics, although third in specialties most concerned by medico legal processes, did not have a significant linear trend over the years in accordance with the situation in the US and Canada 16 . We found that the most common causes of litigation in Obstetrics were perinatal asphyxia, traumatic injuries of the newborn (mostly related with instrumented deliveries, shoulder dystocia and vaginal delivery in breech presentation), maternal sequelae and prenatal diagnosis.…”

“…It is a situation that exists for a few decades, that led to the escalation of insurance premiums which become a threaten to the obstetric practice [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] .…”

Medico-legal litigation in Obstetrics: a characterization analysis of a decade in Portugal

“…Obstetrics has great relevance in the court of medical liability, and is the target of intense debate, especially in American literature [1][2][3][4] . Added to a more traditional litigation situations (e.g., perinatal asphyxia) new potentially litigious areas are now emerging, examples of which are prenatal diagnosis and decisions in Maternal-Fetal Medicine 5,6 .…”

“…The knowledge that most health professionals have on this issue is the result of the America's circumstances dissemination, where the problem of Medical Liability is present in day-to-day professional routine and has dramatic consequences at the level of daily activity and on professional choices. It is a situation that exists for a few decades and led to the escalation of insurance premiums which become a threat to the obstetric practice [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] .…”

Obstetric litigation: The importance of the quality of clinical files and its influence on expertise conclusions

“…It is a situation that has existed for a few decades, and which has led to an escalation of insurance premiums that threaten obstetric practice (Dubay et al 2001;Frigoletto et al 2002, Hammond 2002, MacLennan and Spencer 2002, Owolabi and Farine 2002Howard 2003Kravitz et al 2003, Mavroforou et al 2003Bettes et al 2004, Chan and Willett 2004, Queenan 2004Hammond and Schwartz 2005, Laros 2005, Pearlman and Gluck 2005, Queenan, 2005.…”