Emergency Physician Practice Changes After Being Named in a Malpractice Claim.

Area of Science:

• Medical Malpractice
• Physician Practice Patterns
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Physician fear of malpractice claims is a known driver of defensive medicine.
• Empirical evidence on practice pattern changes after malpractice claims is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if emergency physicians alter their practice patterns after being named in a malpractice claim.
• To assess changes in care intensity, speed, and patient experience.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective difference-in-differences study design.
• Comparison of emergency physicians named in claims vs. matched controls (2010-2015).
• Analysis of care intensity (admission rates, RVUs/visit), care speed (RVUs/hour, LOS), and patient experience (Press Ganey scores).

Main Results:

• No significant changes observed in care intensity or speed post-malpractice claim filing.
• Emergency physicians named in claims showed immediate and sustained improvements in patient experience scores (6.52 Press Ganey percentile ranks).
• Greatest improvements in patient satisfaction were noted for failure-to-diagnose claims.

Conclusions:

• Being named in a malpractice claim was associated with improved patient satisfaction among emergency physicians.
• Practice patterns related to care intensity and speed remained unchanged.
• Findings suggest malpractice claims may positively influence physician-patient interactions.