Cautionary Insights into Lawsuits Against Physicians

Urgent care providers were not named among those most likely to be sued in Medscape’s recent Malpractice Report 2017, but a look at the research is likely to offer some insights that could help them lower their risk for landing in court. “Failure to diagnose/delayed diagnosis” was the reason for 31% of the lawsuits against physicians in the survey—the most prevalent among all causes mentioned. “Complications from treatment/surgery” was the second-most common answer (27%). Procedural missteps were low on the list—but they were still on the list: “Poor documentation of patient instruction and education” was named by 3% of doctors who reported being sued; 2% said they’d been sued for “Improperly obtaining/lack of informed consent.” Adding insult to injury, 58% of the defendant docs reported they were “very surprised” by a lawsuit, while 29% were “somewhat surprised.” Only 13% admitted they were “not at all surprised.” Medscape included responses from 4,000 from more than 25 specialties in its findings.