Apology laws may not reduce medical malpractice claims after all

Apology Laws May Not Reduce Medical Malpractice Claims After All

A recent study has found that apology laws may not after all, reduce the number of medical malpractice claims filed against physicians.

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Medical malpractice claims are a nightmare for doctors mainly because they question their integrity as caregivers. As long as the case goes on, the doctor has to live with a bad reputation which can have a negative impact on his/her self esteem. As providers of medical chart review services for medical malpractice lawyers, we know how distressing malpractice litigation can be for a practising physician.

Apology laws were implemented as a means to reduce the number of medical malpractice suits being filed. These are laws that allow physicians to express sympathy to patients and families without it being used against them. Apology laws were expected to reduce costs and risks to health centers, hospitals and doctors. There are apology laws in around 37 states in the United States. The states that do not have an apology law are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

An important thing to remember is that in states that do have a medical malpractice apology law in place, the type of protected apology may vary by state. Most states have partial apology laws that protect against statements of compassion, condolence, commiseration or sympathy while full apology laws protect against all types of statements.

Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, and South Carolina have passed full apology laws and in these states, statements of errors, faults, liability or mistakes will not be taken as an admission of guilt in medical malpractice suits.

How was this law supposed to reduce the number of medical malpractice suits? 

They are designed to prevent plaintiffs from bringing as evidence an apology made by a physician if a medical error is alleged.

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They are expected to reduce lawsuits based on the reasoning that the decision to file a malpractice suit is often made in anger. Apology laws were expected to mitigate anger with acts of compassion.

However, a new study by a Vanderbilt University team has found that apology laws do not reduce the number of medical malpractice suits filed or the amounts paid out. On the other hand, these laws have actually increased the number of suits against non-surgeons.

The authors studied 90 percent of 3,517 malpractice claims across the country from 2004 to 2011. The Vanderbilt researchers used a data bank that included all malpractice claims for 90 percent of physicians practicing in a single specialty across the country. Seventyfive percent were surgeons.

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Some observers feel that an apology may be regarded as an admission that something went wrong, and that could persuade the patient to file a lawsuit.

The results of the study are not consistent with the intended effect of apology laws because these laws do not generally reduce the total number of claims or claims that result in a lawsuit. These laws seem to have no statistically significant effect on whether surgeons experience either a non-suit claim or a lawsuit.

Apologizing to patients and their family may not after all, decrease liability if you don’t read and understand the law carefully.

There are yet others who believe these laws are significant because they “allow people to be decent human beings.� Apology laws allow doctors to express human emotions and provide comfort to grieving families.

www.mosmedicalrecordreview.com

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