New research from JAMA Internal Medicine has determined the most common reasons for medical malpractice suits against clinicians practicing internal medicine. The research looked at records from 250,000 closed medical malpractice cases between 1985 and 2009, and used data from 33,747 cases that involved internal medicine.
The Top 5 Reasons for Internal Medicine Suits from 1995-2009
| Medical Malpractice | Total # of Cases Closed | Percentage of Cases Resulting in Payment |
Median
Payment |
| Failure to correctly diagnose a condition | 8925 | 33.80% | $183,000.00 |
| Breach of care due to non-medical error (e.g., failure to obtain consent, equipment failure.) | 8581 | 4.80% | $114,150.00 |
| Medical error during procedure | 3730 | 28.30% | $103,203.00 |
| Failure to monitor subordinates | 3681 | 31.10% | $141,875.00 |
| Incorrect prescription or administration of medication | 2865 | 29.20% | $89,600.00 |