Eleven-year descriptive analysis of closed court verdicts on medical errors in Spain and Massachusetts
Giraldo, Priscila (Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques)
Sato, Luke (Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA)
Martínez-Sánchez, Jose M. (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge)
Comas Serrano, Mercè (Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques)
Dwyer, Kathy (Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
Sala, Maria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Pediatria, Obstetrícia i Ginecologia i Medicina Preventiva i Salut Pública)
Castells, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Pediatria, Obstetrícia i Ginecologia i Medicina Preventiva i Salut Pública)

Data:	2016
Resum:	To evaluate and compare the characteristics of court verdicts on medical errors allegedly harming patients in Spain and Massachusetts from 2002 to 2012. We reviewed 1041 closed court verdicts obtained from data on litigation in the Thomson Reuters Aranzadi Westlaw databases in Spain (Europe), and 370 closed court verdicts obtained from the Controlled Risk and Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions (CRICO/RMF) in Massachusetts (USA). We included closed court verdicts on medical errors. The definition of medical errors was based on that of the Institute of Medicine (USA). We excluded any agreements between parties before a judgement. Medical errors were involved in 25. 9% of court verdicts in Spain and in 74% of those in Massachusetts. The most frequent cause of medical errors was a diagnosis-related problem (25. 1%; 95% CI 20. 7% to 31. 1% in Spain; 35%; 95% CI 29. 4% to 40. 7% in Massachusetts). The proportion of medical errors classified as high severity was 34% higher in Spain than in Massachusetts (p=0. 001). The most frequent factors contributing to medical errors in Spain were surgical and medical treatment (p=0. 001). In Spain, 98. 5% of medical errors resulted in compensation awards compared with only 6. 9% in Massachusetts. This study reveals wide differences in litigation rates and the award of indemnity payments in Spain and Massachusetts; however, common features of both locations are the high rates of diagnosis-related problems and the long time interval until resolution.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Publicat a:	BMJ open, Vol. 6 (august 2016) , ISSN 2044-6055

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011644
PMID: 27577585

7 p, 716.4 KB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats