[Expert commissions and arbitration boards. A report of current status]

Since 1975 all German Land Medical Councils (Landesärztekammern) have launched either boards of experts or arbitration panels with the intention to settle disputes on medical malpractice by arbitration, on a voluntary base, free from commitment, and without any costs for the parties concerned. Numbers of arbitrator's awards and rates of affirmed cases of malpractice are given for the years 1988 to 1991, for all panels or boards, respectively. More details are reported from the boards of experts of the Land Medical Council of Baden-Württemberg with special reference to possible relations of affirmed awards to some demographic and professional factors. The probability of being involved in a procedure of arbitration is broken down by medical specialty and by site of employment, e.g. in hospital or in medical practice. The highest rates are found in specialties operating on and in hospital doctors. But the percentage of affirmed awards is higher for doctors working in their own office. Evaluating the consequences following the awards of two different periods shows a high degree of acceptance by the patients. Without affirmation less than ten percent of all patients involved apply to the courts but this is done by about thirty percent if the award is affirmating. In these cases the amount of the compensation wanted is contested.