The AANA Foundation Malpractice Closed Claims Study: A Descriptive Analysis

The AANA Foundation Closed Claims Researchers evaluated 245 closed claims spanning from 2003-2012. The majority of claims comprised CRNA providers whom are mainly male, independent contractors, certified between 1980-1999, and with malpractice coverage limits of $1 million/$3 million. The median age for all claimants was 50 years old, and 63.7% of claimants were female. For those claims where race was known, 54% of claimants were Caucasian. Most adverse events occurred in a hospital with an outpatient admission status. The majority of adverse events were identified as intra-anesthesia. The top five surgical procedures associated with these claims were orthopedic general surgery, cosmetic, obstetric, and neurologic procedures. An adverse event leading to death occurred in 35.1% of claims. Regardless of severity of injury, reviewers determined that 45.5% of negative outcomes were preventable, 32.7% of the anesthesia treatment was inappropriate, and 29% of negative outcomes were caused by CRNAs' actions. Reviewers found that no AANA Standards were breached in 45.7% of claims; however, Standards 4, 5, and 3 were the most common standards breached. The most costly severity classification was major permanent injury (ie, paraplegia, blindness, loss of two limbs, or brain ddamage) with a median payment of $299,810.