June 14, 2011 — Most efforts to improve patient safety center on inpatient care, but almost as many malpractice claims paid on behalf of physicians arise from outpatient settings as they do from hospitals, according to a study published June 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
"Patient safety initiatives should focus on the outpatient setting, not just on inpatient care," the researchers, with lead author Tara Bishop, MD, MPH, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College, write.
Dr. Bishop and her coauthors view the number of malpractice cases that conclude with an award for the plaintiff — along with their dollar amounts — as a "crude indicator of the prevalence and seriousness of adverse medical events."
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