Practices that have the highest rates of malpractice

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has slowed down medical malpractice lawsuits; however, certain medical practices attract more malpractice lawsuits than other practices.

Recently, the 2021 Medscape Malpractice Report identified the specialties most likely to be sued for malpractice. The report was generated from a survey of over 4,350 doctors in nearly 30 specialties taken online between May and August of 2020.

Overall, there has been a decrease of medical malpractice suits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So what practices are most likely to face malpractice suits?

According to the survey, the top four medical practices in volume of malpractice cases are general surgeons, orthopedists, plastic surgeons and urologists. The top four were virtually the same as their percentage of having been sued for malpractice varied between 80% and 83%.

Plastic surgeons and general surgeons both came in at 83% while orthopedists were at 81% and 80% of urologists reported facing at least one medical malpractice lawsuit.

The survey also found that 62% of specialists reported being sued compared to 52% of primary care physicians. Nearly two-thirds of all medical malpractice cases faced were either failure to diagnose or complications from treatment.

Three other practices came in at over 70% — urology at 80%, OB-GYN at 79% and specialized surgery at 74%. Emergency medicine came in at an even 70%.

Geography was also included in the survey, as 2021 medical malpractice cases tend to skew heavily to the Atlantic coast and southern regions. Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee made up half of the top 10 states for medical malpractice lawsuits, while the rest of the list was distributed across the Midwest and northeast — Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey and New York.

Finally, only about one-third of the physicians surveyed felt like the malpractice lawsuit had a negative impact on their career. However, geographical and specialty trends cannot be ignored, and those in these specific regions and practices must take the necessary precautions to avoid being another statistic.