Reasons for and Facilitating Factors of Medical Malpractice Complaints. What Can Be Done to Prevent Them?

Abstract

Background and objectives. Medical malpractice is an increasing phenomenon all over the world, and Romania is not spared. This matter is of concern as it has a significant impact on the physicians and the patients involved, as well as on the health care system and society in general. The purpose of our study was to perform an insight analysis on the reasons for medical malpractice complaints as well as the factors that facilitate the complaints to identify specific ways to prevent them and, implicitly, to improve the medical practice. Materials and Methods. The authors conducted a retrospective study of the medical malpractice complaints registered in the period 2006–2019 at the Commission for monitoring and professional competence for malpractice cases in the region of Moldova, Romania, collecting data on both the patients and the medical professionals involved. Results. The authors analyzed 153 complaints directed against 205 medical professionals and identified 15 categories of reasons for complaints, the most significant being related to the occurrence of complications, and to the doctor–patient interaction (e.g., communication, behavior, informed consent). The most frequently reported medical specialties were obstetrics and gynecology, emergency medicine, general surgery, and orthopedics and traumatology. Emergency medicine was often involved in complaints suggesting an over utilization of this department in our country and the need for health policies, which could divert the large number of patients accessing emergency medicine towards primary care. Conclusions. Regarding the dysfunctions in the doctor–patient relationship frequently claimed by patients, the authors concluded that doctors need special undergraduate training and periodic updating during their practice for them to be able to adequately address the challenges of interacting with their patients.

Socio-Demographic, Professional and Institutional Characteristics That Make Romanian Doctors More Prone to Malpractice Complaints

“…The present study indicates that family medicine is one of the specialties in which doctors receive the fewest complaints, which is partly consistent with the results obtained in a previous study [7]. Although there are studies in the literature that place a generally high risk for family medicine [48,49], the fact that this specialty received fewer complaints in the present and the previous studies is not a situation limited to Romania, as there are other authors who have obtained similar results [38].…”

“…For the construction of the questionnaire, a literature data search was undertaken and supplementary information about items was suggested by the results of previous studies by the present research team: a retrospective study regarding patient complaints submitted to the Commission for monitoring and professional competence for malpractice cases within the Public Health Directorates in the Moldova region of Romania [7] and a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with doctors who were complained about by patients.…”

“…An analysis of the annual distribution of malpractice complaints filed in Romanian courts between November 2007 and April 2018 shows an increase in the number of complaints from 8 in 2008 to 65 in 2017, with 331 complaints filed during the entire study period [6]. The analysis of the complaints submitted for extra-judicial analysis in the eight counties of the Moldova region of Romania shows a total of 153 complaints in the period 2006-2019 [7].…”

Medical Malpractice Cases in Kerman Province, Iran (2010 - 2014)

“…The most frequent complaints and medical malpractice cases had occurred in 2014, while the least frequent incidents were reported in 2010. The ascending trend of the complaints against the physicians and confirmed medical malpractices were evident in the current research, which is consistent with the previous studies in this regard (19)(20)(21). In the United States, specialized lawyers are often recruited in this area due to the high frequency of medical malpractices.…”

The Personal and Professional Impact of Patients’ Complaints on Doctors—A Qualitative Approach

“…We identified nine themes, seven of which are the subject of this article: injustice, personal impact, professional impact, difficulties, supportive factors, the attitude of hospital management and the attitude of colleagues. The other two themes were: assessing the risk of malpractice complaints in Romania (addressed in a previous article [ 23 ]) and suggestions for preventing complaints and limiting their impact on the physician who received a complaint.…”