LETTER
More on Medical Malpractice
Janardan D. Khandekar and
Gershon Y. Locker
1 June 1993 | Volume 118 Issue 11 | Pages 909-910
TO THE EDITOR:
We read with great interest and considerable apprehension the article [1] and accompanying editorial [2] on medical malpractice. Dividing the number of claims filed in New Jersey over a 15-year period (11934) by the number of physicians insured (12829) yields an average of 1 case per practicing physician. Further, payment was made in 43% of the cases. If New Jersey is representative of the whole country, then over a 15-year period, 40% of the physicians will have a liability claim against them. Over the professional life time of a physician, there is almost a 100% guarantee that a malpractice claim will not only be filed but won!
Further, in 15% of the cases where the physician action was defensible, a jury award was made. Would it be tolerable in the criminal justice system if 15% of the persons we send to jail had committed no crime? Neither Taragin and colleagues nor the editorialist chose to comment on these alarming statistics.
1. Taragin MI, Willett LR, Wilczek AP, Trout R, Carson JL. The influence of standard of care and severity of injury on the resolution of medical malpractice claims. Ann Intern Med. 1992; 117:780-4.
2. Bovbjerg RR. Medical malpractice: folklore, facts, and the future. Ann Intern Med. 1992; 117:788-91.
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