Physicians with one malpractice claim likely to have another in the future

Physicians who have had a medical malpractice claim are four times more likely to have additional medical malpractice claims in the next five years. This is according to a study recently published in JAMA.  

This study looked at all physicians licensed to practice medicine at the time (881,876).For physicians with 0 paid malpractice claims, 3.3% had a future claim. For physicians with 1 paid malpractice claim, 12.4% had a future claim. The association between prior and future claims was similar among low-risk and high-risk specialties.  

According to the study authors, “Many physicians believe that most medical malpractice claims are random events…The findings of this study suggest that paid medical malpractice claims are not random events; timely noncoercive intervention has the potential to reduce future claims.”