User login
Clinical question: Do claim-prone physicians account for a substantial share of all paid malpractice claims?
Background: Many studies have compared physicians who have multiple malpractice claims against them with colleagues who have few or no claims against them and have identified systemic differences in their age, sex, and specialty. However, only a few published studies have analyzed the nature of maldistribution itself.
Study design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Using data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).
Synopsis: The NPDB is a confidential data repository created by Congress in 1986. Information was obtained on all payments reported to the NPDB against physicians in the U.S. between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2014. The study sample consisted of 66,426 paid claims against 54,099 physicians.
Physicians in four specialty groups accounted for more than half the claims: internal medicine (15%), obstetrics and gynecology (13%), general surgery (12%), and family medicine (11%). One percent of all physicians accounted for 32% of paid claims. Physicians’ risk of future paid claims increased monotonically with their number of previous paid claims. Physicians who had two paid claims had almost twice the risk of having another one (HR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.86–2.07).
Risk also varied widely according to specialty. Compared with internal medicine physicians, neurosurgeons had approximately double the risk of recurrence (HR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.77–3.03).
The study has some limitations. Some malpractice payments do not reach the NPDB. The study also focused on paid claims only.
Bottom line: A small group of U.S. physicians accounted for a disproportionately large share of paid malpractice claims. Several physician characteristics, most notably the number of previous claims and physician specialty, were significantly associated with recurrence of claims.
Citation: Studdert DM, Bismark MM, Mello MM, Singh H, Spittal MJ. Prevalence and characteristics of physicians prone to malpractice claims. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(4):354-362. doi:10.1056/nejmsa1506137.
Clinical question: Do claim-prone physicians account for a substantial share of all paid malpractice claims?
Background: Many studies have compared physicians who have multiple malpractice claims against them with colleagues who have few or no claims against them and have identified systemic differences in their age, sex, and specialty. However, only a few published studies have analyzed the nature of maldistribution itself.
Study design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Using data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).
Synopsis: The NPDB is a confidential data repository created by Congress in 1986. Information was obtained on all payments reported to the NPDB against physicians in the U.S. between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2014. The study sample consisted of 66,426 paid claims against 54,099 physicians.
Physicians in four specialty groups accounted for more than half the claims: internal medicine (15%), obstetrics and gynecology (13%), general surgery (12%), and family medicine (11%). One percent of all physicians accounted for 32% of paid claims. Physicians’ risk of future paid claims increased monotonically with their number of previous paid claims. Physicians who had two paid claims had almost twice the risk of having another one (HR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.86–2.07).
Risk also varied widely according to specialty. Compared with internal medicine physicians, neurosurgeons had approximately double the risk of recurrence (HR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.77–3.03).
The study has some limitations. Some malpractice payments do not reach the NPDB. The study also focused on paid claims only.
Bottom line: A small group of U.S. physicians accounted for a disproportionately large share of paid malpractice claims. Several physician characteristics, most notably the number of previous claims and physician specialty, were significantly associated with recurrence of claims.
Citation: Studdert DM, Bismark MM, Mello MM, Singh H, Spittal MJ. Prevalence and characteristics of physicians prone to malpractice claims. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(4):354-362. doi:10.1056/nejmsa1506137.
Clinical question: Do claim-prone physicians account for a substantial share of all paid malpractice claims?
Background: Many studies have compared physicians who have multiple malpractice claims against them with colleagues who have few or no claims against them and have identified systemic differences in their age, sex, and specialty. However, only a few published studies have analyzed the nature of maldistribution itself.
Study design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Using data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).
Synopsis: The NPDB is a confidential data repository created by Congress in 1986. Information was obtained on all payments reported to the NPDB against physicians in the U.S. between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2014. The study sample consisted of 66,426 paid claims against 54,099 physicians.
Physicians in four specialty groups accounted for more than half the claims: internal medicine (15%), obstetrics and gynecology (13%), general surgery (12%), and family medicine (11%). One percent of all physicians accounted for 32% of paid claims. Physicians’ risk of future paid claims increased monotonically with their number of previous paid claims. Physicians who had two paid claims had almost twice the risk of having another one (HR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.86–2.07).
Risk also varied widely according to specialty. Compared with internal medicine physicians, neurosurgeons had approximately double the risk of recurrence (HR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.77–3.03).
The study has some limitations. Some malpractice payments do not reach the NPDB. The study also focused on paid claims only.
Bottom line: A small group of U.S. physicians accounted for a disproportionately large share of paid malpractice claims. Several physician characteristics, most notably the number of previous claims and physician specialty, were significantly associated with recurrence of claims.
Citation: Studdert DM, Bismark MM, Mello MM, Singh H, Spittal MJ. Prevalence and characteristics of physicians prone to malpractice claims. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(4):354-362. doi:10.1056/nejmsa1506137.
