[Causality between defects in medical care and fatalities]

Area of Science:

• Forensic Medicine
• Medical Quality Assurance
• Public Health

Background:

• Medical errors can lead to adverse patient outcomes.
• Understanding the relationship between healthcare defects and mortality is crucial for improving patient safety.
• Forensic medical examinations provide valuable data for analyzing medical care quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a causal relationship between defects in medical care and fatal outcomes.
• To classify types of medical care defects and their frequency.
• To analyze data from forensic medical examinations to identify patterns of medical errors.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 209 forensic medical examination reports from the National Bureau of Expertises of the Republic of Armenia (2013-2020).
• Classification of medical care defects into diagnostic, treatment, organizational, and record-keeping categories.
• Statistical analysis to determine causality between identified defects and fatal outcomes.

Main Results:

• A total of 313 medical care defects were identified in 160 reports.
• Diagnostic defects and treatment defects were the most prevalent types of errors.
• A significant causality was found between the occurrence of medical care defects and the likelihood of a fatal outcome.

Conclusions:

• Defects in medical care, particularly diagnostic and treatment errors, are causally linked to fatal outcomes.
• Improving the quality of medical care through better diagnostics and treatment protocols is essential to reduce mortality.
• The findings highlight the importance of rigorous forensic medical analysis in identifying and rectifying systemic issues in healthcare.