Medical Malpractice Makes Up Less than 1% of All New Civil Cases
This stat is brought to you by PopTort and The Center for Justice and Democracy’s Medical Malpractice briefing book. It’s also completely consistent with what we reported in our Medical Malpractice Inforgraphic here.
Also highlighted in PopTort’s post:
- Imaging costs (a marker of defensive medicine) do not go down in states with non-economic damages caps.
- About 500 surgeries are done each year on the wrong body part. (So called wrong site surgeries.)
- 40% of hospitals get a failing grade for patient safety
- Only half of all hospital boards view critical quality as one of their top two priorities.
The following pieces of information come from PopTort’s previous medical malpractice quizzes:
- After the state of Texas enacted stringent caps on damages that could be recovered by victims of medical malpractice, thereby limiting access to the court system, preventable medical errors increased.
- An average about 20 times per month a patient in an American operating room is set on fire
- At least as of 2014, medicare pays physicians who have had their licenses suspended or revoked, who have committed gross malpractice, or who have committed battery
- From 2000 to 2009 the number of medical malpractice filings dropped by 10%
All info is according to PopTort. Read their insightful, well-informed blog for more information.