Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Involving Anesthesiology Residents: An Analysis of the National Westlaw Database

Medical specialties have evaluated malpractice claims in residents, but to the best of our knowledge, malpractice claims have not been evaluated in anesthesiology residents.

The Westlaw legal database was queried for all malpractice litigation cases involving anesthesiology residents in the United States from January 1959 through December 2018. The cases were divided into 2 cohorts by year (before and after 1990) to account for the differences in patient safety features and monitoring available in the different time periods.

Ninety cases were included in the analysis. The median (interquartile range) for inflation adjusted payments was $1 140 544 (0 to 4 158 589). There was no association between the year the claim was filled and the payment amount, Spearman rho = -0.17, P = 0.15. In contrast, for claims that occurred in the intraoperative period, there was a moderate negative association between the year of the claim and the inflation adjusted payment, Spearman rho = -0.45, P = 0.003. Payments were greater if the event occurred in the postoperative period, median of $4 250 000 (959 000 to 55 595 000) compared to events that happened in the intraoperative period, median of $1 039 000 (0 to 3 802 000) and preoperative periods, median of $212 000 (0 to $3 982 000), P = 0.02.

The reduction of liability across the years with malpractice claims that resulted from the intraoperative period suggest that the continued patient safety initiatives implemented by anesthesiology specialty has resulted in less liability to trainees and may stimulate future initiatives targeted to the postoperative period.