Patient harm versus medical malpractice: What US clinicians fear more

Attending physicians and advanced practice clinicians in US emergency departments are more concerned about medical errors resulting in patient harm than in malpractice litigation, according to a study published JAMA Network Open.

The findings are based on an online survey of 1,222 ED clinicians across acute care hospitals in Massachusetts from January to September 2020. Respondents used a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) to indicate their degree of agreement with statements on how fearful they are of making a mistake that leads to a patient harm in their day-to-day practice, and how fearful they are of an error that results in being sued. 

The mean score was greater for fear of harm (4.40) than fear of being sued (3.40), the findings showed. Researchers said the mean scores for both fear of harm and fear of suit were similar regardless of whether the survey was completed before or after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although previous studies have associated clinicians' fear of legal concerns with "excessive healthcare use through defensive medicine," the role fear of patient harm may play in clinical decision-making is less documented, researchers said. 

"Although the study did not delineate the association between this concern and potential overuse of testing, it suggested that fear of harm should be considered with, and may be more consequential, than fear of suit in medical decision-making," researchers said. 

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Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 21 November 2022