If a doctor has made three payouts in malpractice cases, there must be real grounds to worry that his care is substandard, right? In Florida, after all, voters last year approved a trial-lawyer-backed measure providing that physicians who lose three trials (as distinct from payouts short of that point) will have their license yanked. And yet if figures from one medical weblog are to be accepted, three payouts would not be considered anything special among members of one of the profession’s most elite specialties — neurosurgery — in one of the state’s most populous counties. According to a Nov. 21 item posted by Joseph F. Phillips, M.D., on wmed.com:
During the past 25 years, 26 physicians have provided the majority of neurosurgery care in Palm Beach County. According to data derived from the “Professional Liability Closed Claims” database maintained by the State of Florida, there have been 75 malpractice claims lost by this group of neurosurgeons. The dates of occurrence of these claims range from 12/24/74 to 11/14/2001. The dates of settlement range from 7/8/77 to 11/21/2003. The interval from occurrence to settlement ranges from 0.9 to 10. 4 years with an average of 4.5 years. This database does not monitor lawsuits won by the physician or claims that are still in progress.
22 of the 26 neurosurgeons in the county appear in this closed liability claims database. The first neurosurgeon to practice in Palm Beach County had no recorded claims in the database. Several of the newer arrivals in the county also show no closed claims to date. but pending lawsuits will become a certainty.
The range of malpractice claims lost by the county’s neurosurgeons is from 0 to 15 claims per physician with an average of 2.9 closed claims per physician. Since previous studies by the Physician Insurers Association of America have shown physicians win about 4 out of 5 malpractice claims, an estimate of the total number of malpractice claims defended by these physicians would be in the several hundreds (about 400 cases using the above information). The total payment for the 75 closed claims in this group was $21,010,207. The average claim was $280,136. The largest claim was $2,500,000.
The average neurosurgeon in the county appears to accumulate a malpractice claim every one to two years and lose a claim every 4 to 5 years. The time spent and cost of defending these lawsuits is unknown but is certainly significant.
Of the original group of 26 neurosurgeons, 2 are believed deceased, 2 are retired, 4 have only limited practices, and 7 are known to have left the area. This follows the trend for many neurosurgeons to leave the county after only several years of practice. This is particularly critical because the county has had significant and steady population growth including a marked increase in the need for medical services of an aging population.
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