BACKGROUND Patients are often not told about harmful medical errors. The malpractice environment is considered a major determinant of physicians' willingness to disclose errors to patients. Yet, little is known about the malpractice environment's actual effect on physicians' error disclosure attitudes and experiences. METHODS Mailed survey of 2637 physicians (62.9% response rate) in the Unite...

In the 1970's, Michigan and other states were confronted with a medical malpractice crisis of astronomical proportions. The escalating number of medical malpractice lawsuits and concomitant increase in malpractice premiums for health care providers fostered a divisive climate among doctors, lawyers and patients. In response to this crisis, the Michigan legislature enacted the Medical Malpractic...

BACKGROUND Many physicians believe Medicaid patients are more likely than non-Medicaid patients to file malpractice claims. This study examines the accuracy of this belief in regard to obstetric malpractice claims. METHODS Claims filed between January 1982 and June 1988 from the major malpractice insurer in Washington State were used to compare obstetric malpractice claims filed on behalf of ...

Received September 5, 2007; revised November 13 and December 22, 2007, and February 25, 2008; accepted March 26, 2008. The authors are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Address correspondence to Carol I. Ping Tsao, M.D., Medical College of Wisconsin, Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, 5000 W. National Ave, Milwauk...

• Objective: To determine what annual increase in malpractice premiums would be acceptable to academic physicians at a large institution. • Methods: All 270 full-time physician faculty in the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2004 were invited to participate in this study. A contingent valuation approach was used to assess willingness to accept a specified...

This paper looks at Texas tort law reform to make claims regarding the relationship between Texas tort reform and damages recovered. Starting with reform in 1977, Texas has passed 15 pieces of legislation that, in principle, restrict the damages plaintiffs recover. Most empirical analyses have focused primarily on analyzing behavior resulting from the tort reform. In other cases, research has l...

Veterinarians today face an increased risk for malpractice claims in view of increased client awareness of the benefits of the human-animal bond and advances in preventive and specialized veterinary medicine. An important problem with medical malpractice litigation is the manner in which malpractice claims are resolved. In several countries, thousands of claims have been successfully resolved v...