PEW Survey - Most Oft Sued Docs in PA Are High-Risk Specialists

The public has been bombarded with claims that "a few bad apples in the medical profession account for most of the malpractice claims." Who wouldn't want to get rid of bad apples?

But one report proves that it's not as simple as bad apples. It's specialists facing the most difficult cases and getting the most lawsuits. Here's the real story:

A report released in July 2004 by the Project on Medical Liability Reform in Pennsylvania found a high incidence of lawsuits among high-risk specialty surgeons in litigious localities.

The Pew Foundation funded project surveyed 1,333 Pennsylvania specialists and drew responses from 824 physicians in high-risk fields including emergency medicine, general surgery, neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, obstetrics/gynecology and radiology.

According to the report, 86 percent of specialists had been named in a malpractice suit at least once during their careers, and 47 percent had been sued in the three years prior to the survey.

The "high rate of suit among physicians in our sample suggests that these physicians' fear of lawsuits may be well-founded." (Michelle M. Mello, David M. Studdert, Catherine M. DesRoches, Jordon Peugh, Kinga Zapert, Troyen A. Brennan, and William M. Sage, "Caring For Patients In A Malpractice Crisis: Physician Satisfaction And Quality Of Care", Health Affairs (PDF).