Malpractice Trends among Pediatricians over 18 Years: How Are We Doing? :

While pediatricians are less frequently sued than other types of clinicians, malpractice claims do occur, and when they do, indemnity can be higher than some other specialties according to information in a new study of trends in malpractice based on results from 7 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Periodic Surveys of its Fellows. The authors, Bondi et al (10.1542/peds.2019-0711), evaluated surveys between 1987 and 2015 involving more than 5,700 respondents to see if malpractice claims or lawsuits were changing in frequency during this time. The authors discovered that the rate of claim or lawsuit has dropped from a peak of 33% in 1990 to 21% as of 2015. Decisions in support of pediatricians for whom claims or lawsuits were filed also improved during this time, while median indemnity, approximately $128K in 2018 dollars, stayed about the same. The authors do a great job of identifying factors that are associated with a greater risk of getting sued for malpractice. This is well worth your perusal so rather than share them with you in this blog, please judge this survey study for yourself and perhaps share your retorts regarding whether further tort reform is needed by posting a comment with this blog, on our website, or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.