OB/GYN as a "High Malpractice Liability" field

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Leukocyte

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Dear OB/GYN residents/attendings, how do you guys deal with the fact that you are in a high malpractice liability medical specialty? Does it make you more anxious at the job, and does it put more stress on your life? Does the continuous potential threat of lawsuits put a damper on your excitement of practing OBGN?

Would you still encourage people to go into OB?GYN, despite the higher risk of potentially having a malprctice lawsuit?

Thank YOu.

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Can you share who you are - if you're a med student that would help. If you were a medical student the mildly insulting questions would be excused, but being a 10+ year member makes it doubtful you're a med student. For anyone else to ask these questions is kinda disrespecting OBGYN doctors. Like why should OBGYN doctors reveal personal hangups about their field to anyone other than a med student honestly trying to consider OBGYN as a career?

If lawsuits bother you, then consider pathology, pediatrics, dermatology, or especially psychiatry (lowest rate of all physicians with a malpractice claim annually).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204310/

I'm in psychiatry and I love it, but really enjoyed OBGYN.
 
Dear OB/GYN residents/attendings, how do you guys deal with the fact that you are in a high malpractice liability medical specialty? Does it make you more anxious at the job, and does it put more stress on your life? Does the continuous potential threat of lawsuits put a damper on your excitement of practing OBGN?

Would you still encourage people to go into OB?GYN, despite the higher risk of potentially having a malprctice lawsuit?

Thank YOu.

As a senior resident, I can say that it can be potentially stressful but it isn't something I think about on a daily basis. To be honest, there isn't much you can do about it. In the end, all you can do is practice good medicine, stay up to date on guidelines, and see how things turn out. Main problem is, even with great management that goes by the book, you can have a poor outcome and the opposite (poor management and still having a good outcome is true).

Some patients will sue based on a bad outcome just because. We had a patient who had a bad shoulder dystocia which resulted in a permanent brachial plexus injury. The management of the dystocia went by the book but it was just a bad outcome. She was fine but her family convinced her to sue because of this.

Lo and behold, she gets pregnant again, and still saw us for the pregnancy even with a pending lawsuit. We recommended C/D, including MFM due to the potential for a repeat scenario and she refused until she was about 35 weeks when she finally changed her mind.

As far as encouraging people to go into OB GYN. I'm not actively recruiting med students when they rotate with us. Fact is, the speciality is a bit grueling. Overnight call can be physically demanding if you are in a busy practice and you could be taking this type of call in your 50s when your body may not cooperate. The lawsuit situation doesn't really come up.
 
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Like why should OBGYN doctors reveal personal hangups about their field to anyone other than a med student honestly trying to consider OBGYN as a career?

I'm in psychiatry and I love it, but really enjoyed OBGYN.

Absolutely no "insult" intended. I do not see how this question can be seen as insulting, but if it is to an OB/GYN, then please pardon my ignorance. This is a public forum that is open for all specialties. The problem of outragious malpractice lawsuits is not only a OB/GYN problem. The problem affects all specialties (at various degrees), and sharing experiences and feelings about this problem among peers (all physicians) can be beneficial, since we all can act as a support for each other. As you might have noticed from my previous posts, I am a person who is still looking for the right medical specialty (even after 2 specialties). I am applying through ERAS, again, for a 3rd time, and considering OB/GYN because I do enjoy the practice and procedures performed, even within the context of Family Medicice.

Thank you for the NEJM article link.


As a senior resident, I can say that it can be potentially stressful but it isn't something I think about on a daily basis.

Thanks anonperson. I agree that is it not easy to predict when a lawsuit will happen. The thought of lawsuits can definately be stressfull, but we cannot keep thinking about it (as you said). I think that is the right way to deal with this situation, because there is no use to keep worrying about somthing that is unpredictable. When talking to most OB/GYNs in my area about my interest in the field, most keep discouraging me from getting into the field due to the high litigious nature of the specialty...so I wanted to get a broader perspective from those in the field. Thanks again.
 
I am a current medical student who is very interested in OB/GYN.
A part of me is reluctant to love it though because of the litigious nature of the field.
For those of us who are not in OB yet, thinking about malpractice is so very scary and discouraging =(.....

I am already neck deep in student loans for med school... if i were to ever get sued and forced to pay millions idk how I would make it...

so any information about it / glimmers of hope are greatly appreciated.
 
As a senior resident, I can say that it can be potentially stressful but it isn't something I think about on a daily basis. To be honest, there isn't much you can do about it. In the end, all you can do is practice good medicine, stay up to date on guidelines, and see how things turn out. Main problem is, even with great management that goes by the book, you can have a poor outcome and the opposite (poor management and still having a good outcome is true).

Some patients will sue based on a bad outcome just because. We had a patient who had a bad shoulder dystocia which resulted in a permanent brachial plexus injury. The management of the dystocia went by the book but it was just a bad outcome. She was fine but her family convinced her to sue because of this.

Lo and behold, she gets pregnant again, and still saw us for the pregnancy even with a pending lawsuit. We recommended C/D, including MFM due to the potential for a repeat scenario and she refused until she was about 35 weeks when she finally changed her mind.

As far as encouraging people to go into OB GYN. I'm not actively recruiting med students when they rotate with us. Fact is, the speciality is a bit grueling. Overnight call can be physically demanding if you are in a busy practice and you could be taking this type of call in your 50s when your body may not cooperate. The lawsuit situation doesn't really come up.

The bolded part really surprised me. Your practice still saw the pt even though she was in the process of suing?!
 
The bolded part really surprised me. Your practice still saw the pt even though she was in the process of suing?!

We're the resident service, we see anybody and everybody. The only thing that can disqualify you from seeing us is a direct threat of violence(serious). Other than that, we're the safety net for the community and the private practices who kick patient's out of their groups.
 
We're the resident service, we see anybody and everybody. The only thing that can disqualify you from seeing us is a direct threat of violence(serious). Other than that, we're the safety net for the community and the private practices who kick patient's out of their groups.

Yikes... I was wondering about that, thanks for clearing that up.
 
Can you share who you are - if you're a med student that would help. If you were a medical student the mildly insulting questions would be excused, but being a 10+ year member makes it doubtful you're a med student. For anyone else to ask these questions is kinda disrespecting OBGYN doctors. Like why should OBGYN doctors reveal personal hangups about their field to anyone other than a med student honestly trying to consider OBGYN as a career?

If lawsuits bother you, then consider pathology, pediatrics, dermatology, or especially psychiatry (lowest rate of all physicians with a malpractice claim annually).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204310/

I'm in psychiatry and I love it, but really enjoyed OBGYN.

There was NOTHING insulting contained within that post.

___________________________


I'm married to an OB and I will tell you that the risk incurred weighs not only on the particular provider, but their spouse as well.
 
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