Malpractice allegations: A reality check for resident physicians

Background

Medical malpractice is a source of stress and cost to physicians. Little is known about how it impacts resident physicians.

Methods

We analyzed data from the Comparative Benchmarking System between 2007 and 2016. We also surveyed surgery residents at our institution regarding malpractice in training.

Results

4% of cases identified a resident physician and 32% involved a surgical specialty. Common allegations were “improper performance of surgery” and “improper management of surgical patient”. 1 case attributed supervision as the major allegation but supervision was a contributing factor in 26% of cases. 18% of cases named a resident as a defendant. Most residents correctly answered that they can be defendants, agreed that a medico-legal curriculum is at least “moderately important”, but had “poor” to “terrible” malpractice knowledge.

Conclusions

A significant number of medical malpractice claims involve resident physicians as a responsible party. Though universally recognized as important, medico-legal training in surgical residency is often lacking.