What happens after a successful malpractice lawsuit?

[Etorphine]

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[DrNightMoves]

I am also very interested in this. I know
that your average doctor has a 1-2% per year chance of being sued. That turns out to about 1 in 14. The risk is different for each specialty obviously. The average amount ranges from 100k to 500k depending on the specialty. Now the interesting part, is that of all malpractice claims, 97% are dropped, 1.5% settle privately, and 1.5% actually make it to court.
I assume after the insurance company pays up, the rates go up. Its like car insurance. They balance the risk of a claim against the plan cost.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Please excuse my naivety, but I am a medical student with some questions about what I can reasonably expect down the road regarding malpractice logistics. I did not want to post this in/clutter the resident's section, but if you are further along your training, please feel free to chime in.

My question is, let's say you have been sued for some inordinate amount that is within the coverage limits of your malpractice insurance - and lost - what now? Are most doctors dropped from their insurance after a major settlement (let's say $1 mil), or do they continue at higher rates?

The actuarials would likely recommend higher rates for you especially if you go with a small group policy (smaller number of insured physicians to spread cost across for the company). Most would not drop you for a single payout.

What about doctors that consistently lose cases? Do they ever have to leave medicine after having lost 4/5 cases, and having no insurance that will take them?

Perhaps although in most cases, they either limit their practice or find a higher cost policy. There's always someone out there willing to take your money.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this. For instance, I am at the top of my class in a US allopathic school, but I know that even the best do not score 100% on exams (let's say the very top performers score a 95% on most tests). That is still 5% they are getting wrong. When you apply this to real life as an attending physician, and misdiagnose 5% of your patients, how is a well-meaning, honest provider supposed to stay in business? (I know experience & skill will actually get that number much lower than 5%, but my point is that it is a non-zero number, even for the best of us).

You are assuming that:

a) lawsuits are about experience and skill (they aren't)
b) that patients always recognize/find out about an event which would warrant suing (they don't)
c) that patients decide to sue even when they have cause (they don't)
d) that suits are successful most of the time (they aren't)

Its the cost of doing practice. If you are in a high litigation specialty (such as I), you accept that and do the best you can.

 

[Etorphine]

The actuarials would likely recommend higher rates for you especially if you go with a small group policy (smaller number of insured physicians to spread cost across for the company). Most would not drop you for a single payout.



Perhaps although in most cases, they either limit their practice or find a higher cost policy. There's always someone out there willing to take your money.



You are assuming that:

a) lawsuits are about experience and skill (they aren't)
b) that patients always recognize/find out about an event which would warrant suing (they don't)
c) that patients decide to sue even when they have cause (they don't)
d) that suits are successful most of the time (they aren't)

Its the cost of doing practice. If you are in a high litigation specialty (such as I), you accept that and do the best you can.

Thanks for the insightful post, Winged Scapula.

I am considering a high-risk specialty like yourself, and suffice it to say these are questions I've held in the back of my mind for a long, long time. Your wisdom is greatly appreciated.

Indeed, it seems that these risks might just be a part of life, and the strategy is just trying to minimize *modifiable* sources of liability.

Now that you mention it, I've heard from family that patients often sue when they experience a bad outcome (despite the provider having done everything right), so there definitely seems to be a variety of factors that go into this, many of which are out of the hands of the provider. I guess it goes to show why it pays to be nice to your patients, document everything, and be realistic about expectations from treatment (although this still doesn't guarantee anything). Even then, a patient can see you as a $1 mil lotto ticket.

Regardless, in going forward, I think that eases my mind a bit. I just wanted to know that, worst case scenario, it is not likely and often that one might sacrifice 1/3 of their life to become a MD and have that taken away very easily, and there are ways to recover down the road if you find yourself in that unfortunate circumstance.