Benchmark Report: 22% of MedMal Claims Related to Failures in Medical Treatment

Nearly one quarter of 18,164 medical malpractice claims filed between 2007 and 2011 included allegations of failures in medical treatment and were more often associated with patient management than with procedure performance, according to a benchmarking report released by CRICO Strategies, a division of the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions, Inc. Those claims, which arose from 1,497 cases, led to $215 million in incurred losses, the report states. Most of the claims (57%) were related to the management of medical care and conditions, with the remaining claims stemming from the performance of a specific medical procedure. More than 70% of the claims arose from care provided in ambulatory settings, but the specific setting varied depending on whether the site was an academic medical center or a community hospital.