The most frequent cause of medical malpractice allegations against physicians is a failure to diagnose patients or a delay of diagnosis, while for gastroenterologists, diagnostic errors top the list of the most prevalent reasons for lawsuits, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine.
Only a minority of malpractice allegations against gastroenterologists are related to procedures, according to the study. To avoid allegations, gastroenterologists are encouraged to improve diagnostic quality, optimize informed consent and enhance patient-physician communications.
Among all physicians, Medscape identified the top reasons for malpractice-related allegations against physicians as:
1. Failure to diagnose/delayed diagnosis: 35%
2. Complications from treatment/surgery: 29%
3. Failure to treat/delayed treatment: 20%
4. Poor outcome/disease progression: 19%
5. Wrongful death: 18%
Though gastroenterologists are not common defendants in major malpractice cases, there have been several multimillion-dollar judgments in the last 10 years.
Major settlements in the last two years include a $4 million negligence ruling against a MedStar Georgetown GI, a $750,000 negligence ruling against a Pennsylvania GI and a $650,000 negligence ruling against a University of Pennsylvania GI.
One good way to avoid malpractice accusations is to always clearly document procedures from start to finish, one specialist told Becker's.
"Incomplete documentation is a frequent culprit. It is paramount to photodocument the entire colon to ensure that everything was examined in the unfortunate case of post-colonoscopy colon cancer," Omar Khokhar, MD, a gastroenterologist at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, Ill., told Becker's. "It does happen, and when it does, it's important to show that nothing was missed at the time of examination."