Medical malpractice in urology, 1985 to 2004: 469 consecutive cases closed with indemnity payment

Malpractice premiums have increased by up to 57% for urologists in the last 3 years, for which the reasons are not clearly reported. We sought to better understand factors contributing to the current medical malpractice crisis in urology.

Working with the Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company of New York State we evaluated malpractice claims in urology that were closed with indemnity payment between 1985 and 2004. Individual claims were assessed for the purported negligent act, the procedure when applicable and the expense incurred. We also evaluated the impact of new technologies, eg laparoscopic nephrectomy, on reported claims.

A total of 469 urology malpractice claims were closed with indemnity payment during the period evaluated for a total loss indemnity of Dollars 99,335,431. The number of files closed with indemnity payment yearly remained relatively constant at an average of 22 claims. The average indemnity payment increased each year and after correcting for inflation a 191% increase was observed for the period evaluated. The greatest number of claims was related to postoperative events (total of 101), followed by intraoperative events (96), failure to diagnose a given condition (60), medication administration error (21) and a foreign body left following surgery (20). In the area of new technologies laparoscopic surgery accounted for 4 claims and transurethral needle ablation accounted for 1. Vasectomy accounted for 8 claims.

In the current study surgical procedures were the greatest generator of claims with the most common being oncological. Emerging and new technologies, eg laparoscopy and robotics, did not account for the increase in indemnity payments observed to date. Only further investigation will determine whether this is secondary to a lag time in the closure of suits related to these emerging technologies or to a lack of such suits. The actual number of claims closed with indemnity payment yearly remained relatively constant. However, the indemnity payment per claim far outpaced that expected for inflation. The observed increase in indemnity payment per claim would appear to be a significant contributing factor to the current malpractice crisis in urology.