Reasons related to the relationship between patients and medical staff · 3, 2, 1.This study aimed to analyze the reasons for medical malpractice complaints submitted to doctorate commissions in the region of Moldova, as well as the factors that facilitate complaints, identify ways to prevent complaints and, implicitly, improve medical practice. Moldova is a large territory located in the northeast and partly in the southeast of Romania, between the Carpathians and the Prut River, and includes 8 counties out of a total of 41, in addition to the capital, Bucharest (Bacau, Botosani, Galati, Iasi, Neamt, Suceava, Vaslui and Vrancea), with a total area of about 46,000 km2 and about 4 million people. The analysis of the reasons underlying the complaints led to the identification of 15 categories, based on the central and essential elements mentioned in the complaints. To identify the categories of motives, the authors used an inductive approach.
All the authors read the reasons stated by the plaintiffs several times and, to ensure rigor, met several times to analyze them. Thus, the authors identified 15 categories related to aspects of the medical act itself or to the doctor-patient relationship and decided together to include each reason in one of the established categories. The medical specialties in which most complaints were found were: obstetrics and gynecology, with 24 (15.7%) claims against 29 doctors (14.14%), (emergency medicine), with 18 (11.8%) lawsuits against 20 doctors (9.75%), general surgery with 16 (10.5%) lawsuits against 20 doctors (9.75%) and (orthopedics and traumatology) with 12 (7.8%) claims involving 19 doctors (9.26%).). This study made it possible to analyze the data collected during 14 years of activity of the Commissions on monitoring and professional competence in cases of malpractice in the Romanian region of Moldova. Our results showed several findings that could be the starting point for formulating prevention methods designed to reduce the number of malpractice lawsuits.
Our study showed that the reasons for complaints are both those related to the technical aspects of medical activity and those related to the relationship between patients and medical staff; these results are consistent with data from the literature. The analysis of these reasons is important to improve medical practice by identifying various prevention methods aimed at both medical practice and the doctor-patient relationship, improving the medical services provided to patients, and protecting medical personnel from complaints. In our study, 9.2% of patients complained about inappropriate language from doctors, 9.2% complained about inappropriate behavior, and 15.7% complained about a lack of information or a deficiency in the provision of information. These issues raise alarm about the way in which doctors approach and relate to their patients and about the fact that deficiencies in the doctor-patient relationship can result in a complaint of malpractice.
National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894. Poor clinical judgment is a factor in approximately 60% of malpractice lawsuits, Ruoff says. Inadequate patient evaluation is the most common mistake in this category. In the outpatient setting, errors often involve an inadequate anamnesis or the failure to perform an adequate physical examination. In the hospital environment, the most common errors are inadequate patient monitoring, lack of rescue, or premature discharge.
According to Schaffer, practicing “defensive” medicine and ordering diagnostic tests solely to protect against malpractice lawsuits is not a good substitute for clinical judgment. Document the diagnostic process. You may be able to work directly with the medical center, hospital system, or doctor's office to resolve a case using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) model. These practices don't always benefit patients; on the contrary, they subject them to unnecessary and sometimes risky interventions, increase healthcare costs and lower doctors' level of satisfaction. Malpractice lawsuits should be handled by experienced attorneys who also understand medicine and can evaluate whether a medical error reaches the level of malpractice.
The data collected referred, on the one hand, to the reasons for the complaints and, on the other hand, to the people who presented them (patients or family members) and to the doctors who participated in the respective cases. Family members who are grieving the loss of a loved one due to a medical error can seek compensation for their losses, such as lost wages for the death of the breadwinner and compensation for their pain. Defensive medicine involves asking for more medical tests, more medical opinions, prescribing more medications, more referrals to specialized tests, refusing to perform certain high-risk procedures, or even refusing to help patients with serious illnesses. More specifically, lack of diagnosis was more likely to be a reason for complaint in male patients (9.9%) than in female patients (0.0%).
Professional liability insurance is purchased to mitigate the financial risk of a doctor practicing medicine. In cases where patients were newborns, informed consent was more likely to be a reason for complaint (25.0%) compared to those where patients were not newborns (5.6%)). States usually have authority over medical malpractice cases, but a case could go to federal court if it involves the federal government. The financial risks of medical malpractice lawsuits are not limited to the judgments handed down to the plaintiff, the costs of arbitration, medical damages, punitive damages, compensatory damages, attorney fees, court costs, and fines.
Some health professionals use a form of ADR known as communication and resolution programs (CRP) to address medical errors when they occur.
