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Injury, Liability, and the Decision to File a Medical Malpractice Claim

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Frank A. Sloan  and
Chee Ruey Hsieh
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Abstract

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The authors used two data sets based on interviews with families who suffered an adverse birth outcome in Florida—either a stillbirth, an infant death, or a permanent birth-related injury—to assess the decision to file a medical malpractice claim. These data were supplemented by medical evaluations of liability. The authors found that cases in which the physician evaluators thought the physician had been negligent were much more likely to have become claims, as were more serious injuries. Overall, the view of critics of the current medical malpractice system that innocent physicians are just as likely, or more likely, to be sued than the guilty ones and that patients sue when they do not obtain a “perfect result” is not confirmed. Claims were less likely to result when the family had health insurance, either private or public, and when families who had been told by the physician that there might be a problem with the child. The mother's educational attainment and family income had no effect on the probability of claiming. Mothers who admitted to consuming alcohol during pregnancy were more likely to claim.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , 1995 , pp. 413 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

This research, including data collection, was supported in part by Grant No. 5-R01-HS06499, “Birth Outcomes, Satisfaction with Care and Malpractice” made to Vanderbilt University and later to Duke University from the U.S. Agency for Health Policy and Research. Collection of data on closed claimants was supported by Grant No. 14045, “Resolution of Malpractice Claims: Birth and Emergency Room Related Injuries,” from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Vanderbilt University. We thank Stephen Entman, Penny Githens, Gerald Hickson, Bridget Reilly, Cheryl Glass, Christoph Schenzler, and Ellen Wright Clayton for their significant contributions in this study; Christopher Manner and Elizabeth Kulas for computational assistance; and anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft for their helpful comments.

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Statute

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