Quality & Patient Safety

Malpractice data analysis offers window into surgical error

Patient Safety Monitor, August 1, 2010

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The term “malpractice” often invokes images of courtrooms and spiraling insurance rates, but malpractice data can often be used for the purpose of fostering patient safety. In the surgical world, that information is increasingly more important as the amount and types of surgeries performed climb each year. 

In its 2009 annual benchmarking report, CRICO/RMF (originally two companies, Controlled Risk Insurance Company and the Risk Management Foundation), the patient safety and medical malpractice company owned by and serving the Harvard medical community among others, analyzed malpractice claims and provided that information to its members as well as the public. 

Not surprisingly, communication, disclosure, diagnosis, and technical performance were common reasons for claims. The report’s authors hope that the data analysis and benchmarking capabilities included in the report will influence patient safety initiatives at hospitals in the near future.

“We feel that malpractice activity is what I would term ‘the tip of the iceberg,’ ” says Bob Hanscom, JD, vice president of loss prevention and patient safety for the Risk Management Foundation and RMF Strategies, a division of CRICO/RMF. “Malpractice activity is always above the surface of the water; it has the potential to be known to the public, it’s always where something has really gone wrong. Our theory has always been if you analyze those malpractice cases as deeply as possible, they become a very rich, almost divining rod as far as where those vulnerabilities are in the real-time environment.”

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor.

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