evaluation of malpractice claims against ophthalmologists referred to the iran medical council during years 2003 to 2008

purpose: to evaluate malpractice complaints against ophthalmologist referred to the iri. methods: this cross-sectional study was performed on medical council during years 2003 to 2008. spss software was used for analysis. results: during this period from 1869 cases of malpractice 115 (%6.1) have been related to the field of ophthalmology but in order to some problems we can’t analysis 24 files. out of 91 cases, 10.1% of them have been related to university centers, 58.3% related to non- university centers and 30.7% related to private centers, however malpractice rate in these centers have been 20%, 28.3% and 35.8%. the highest rate of filed complains was related to the cataract surgery (46.1%) follow by refractive error (16.4%) and eye trauma (10.1%). conclusion: ensure that patients fully understand the specific risks associated with the procedure, good communication and behavior with patients and their companions and performing adequate physical examination have significant effect on the decreasing of malpractice complaints against ophthalmologist.