Table 1.
Characteristics of Malpractice Claims (N=26,853)1
| Time from claim filing to resolution | |
|---|---|
| Time to resolution, months, mean 2 | 20.3 |
| Time to resolution, months, 25th percentile | 7.0 |
| Time to resolution, months, 75th percentile | 28.3 |
| Resolution time based on incident date | |
| Tine from incident to report, months, mean | 22.8 |
| Time from incident to resolution, months, mean | 43.1 |
| Physician Age | |
| 30 to 39 | 2,832 (10.6 %)3 |
| 40 to 49 | 9,546 (35.6) |
| 50 and over | 14,471 (53.9) |
| Physician specialty | |
| Anesthesiology | 2,699 (10.1) |
| Cardiology | 526 (2.0) |
| Dermatology | 289 (1.1) |
| Diagnostic radiology | 616 (2.3) |
| Emergency medicine | 123 (0.5) |
| Family general practice | 2,032 (7.6) |
| General surgery | 1,736 (6.5) |
| Gynecology | 368 (1.4) |
| Internal medicine | 2,690 (10.0) |
| Nephrology | 163 (0.6) |
| Neurology | 353 (1.3) |
| Neurosurgery | 628 (2.3) |
| Obstetrics | 1,809 (6.7) |
| Oncology | 136 (0.5) |
| Ophthalmology | 509 (1.9) |
| Pathology | 1,339 (5.0) |
| Pediatrics | 382 (1.4) |
| Plastic surgery | 2,868 (10.7) |
| Psychiatry | 707 (2.6) |
| Pulmonary medicine | 457 (1.7) |
| Cardio-thoracic surgery | 833 (3.1) |
| Urology | 350 (1.3) |
| Gastroenterology | 616 (2.3) |
| Orthopedic surgery | 2,827 (10.5) |
| Other specialties | 1,797 (6.7) |
| Severity of alleged injury | |
| Fatality or permanent injury | 16,966 (63.2) |
| Temporary injury | 8,901 (33.2) |
| Emotional injury only | 986 (3.7) |
| Year claim closed | |
| 1995–1997 | 7,138 (26.6) |
| 1998–2000 | 7,266 (27.1) |
| 2001–2003 | 7,586 (28.3) |
| 2004–2005 | 4,863 (18.1) |
1.
All numbers indicate number (%) of observations unless otherwise indicated.
2.
Mean, 25th percentile and 75th percentile calculated using sampling weights, all other values are unweighted.
3.
Categories may not sum to 100% because of rounding error.