Hospital Malpractice Claims Continue to Drop, Report Finds
Medical malpractice claims have been on a steady decrease for the last five years, driven by significant drops in claims involving obstetrics and rehabilitation, finds a new report. Still, despite the decline, obstetrics claims accounted for 14 percent of overall hospital malpractice claims in 2005 and accounted for 32 percent of claim costs.
In the report, which looks at trends involving more than 25,000 malpractice claims at 357 hospitals and health care facilities throughout the U.S. from 1991-2005, malpractice claims take 33 months on average to resolve, with little variance by type of procedure, service, or facility. The report was conducted by Marsh, Oliver Wyman, and CS STARS — all operating units of Marsh & McLennan Companies.
Says John Geisbush, a managing director in the HealthCare Practice of Marsh (the world's leading insurance broker and risk advisor), "The heightened emphasis on patient safety, together with the expansion of pay for performance initiatives to drive quality, the widened use of technology, and the success of tort reform efforts in certain states, all are contributing to a decline in the frequency and severity of hospital professional liability claims over time."
Geisbush notes that "While each of these activities continues to gain momentum, the use of comprehensive benchmarking data can help health care institutions assess their performance and make informed decisions about their quality and patient safety initiatives."
In contrast to the downward trend in claims for nearly all other types of hospital services, claims involving psychiatric care and services have been on the rise.
Published on October 15, 2007
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