CRICO Strategies, a health care risk service provider, has compiled a report on obstetrical (OB) medical malpractice statistics since 2005. Obstetrics is the medical field concerning women's reproductive system and childbirth during and after pregnancy. Of the 800 cases in their data pool, 77% showed evidence of clinical error.
The most common risk claims were delays, improper management of childbirth, and poor management of pregnancy. The most common errors were miscommunication, at 36%, followed by technical error, inadequate documentation, administrative failures, and ineffective supervision at 15%.
The crucial news that comes from this report is that medical errors rarely occur because of a single mistake, but because of a set of mistaken decisions or actions. This study is invaluable for determining the patterns of critical moments in similar chains of events. CRICO hopes to use this information to "focus on education and training initiatives designed specifically to help clinicians avert those mistakes." They also hope partner companies and organizations will use the information to develop protocols and technologies that also target weaknesses in OB practice.
Although OB claims are rare at less than one case for every 1000 births, the average damages for a case is almost $1 million, which is far above the average for medical malpractice.
CRICO titled the report, "2010 Annual Benchmarking Report: Malpractice Risks in Obstetrics." Its data was derived from CRICO's own uniquely large database of over 120,000 malpractice claims.
As a practicing medical malpractice trial attorney in New York, I deal with cases involving improper labor and delivery. If you would like more information about how cases like these work in the state of New York, I encourage you to explore my educational website. If you have legal questions, pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com to answer your questions. That's what I do every day. I welcome your call.
Gerry practices law exclusively in the State of New York. Within New York he practices primarily in the following counties: New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk. Technically, Brooklyn is known as "Kings County," and Manhattan and New York City are known as "New York County." Staten Island is known as "Richmond County." These counties make up the New York metropolitan area.
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