Cargando…

Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases

OBJECTIVE: By analyzing closed criminal malpractice claims involving resident physicians, we aimed to clarify the characteristics of litigations and examine the litigious errors leading to guilty verdicts. DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study. Setting/Study Participants. The verdicts pertaining...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wu, Kuan-Han, Chuang, Po-Chun, Su, Chih-Min, Cheng, Fu-Jen, Wu, Chien-Hung, Chen, Fu-Cheng, Huang, Yii-Ting
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32566307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/7692964
_version_ 1783544581958139904
author Wu, Kuan-Han
Chuang, Po-Chun
Su, Chih-Min
Cheng, Fu-Jen
Wu, Chien-Hung
Chen, Fu-Cheng
Huang, Yii-Ting
author_facet Wu, Kuan-Han
Chuang, Po-Chun
Su, Chih-Min
Cheng, Fu-Jen
Wu, Chien-Hung
Chen, Fu-Cheng
Huang, Yii-Ting
author_sort Wu, Kuan-Han
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: By analyzing closed criminal malpractice claims involving resident physicians, we aimed to clarify the characteristics of litigations and examine the litigious errors leading to guilty verdicts. DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study. Setting/Study Participants. The verdicts pertaining to physicians recorded on the national database of the Taiwan justice system were reviewed. Main Outcome Measures. The characteristics of litigations were documented. Negligence and guilty verdicts were further analyzed to identify litigious errors. RESULTS: Between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2014, from a total of 436 closed criminal malpractice cases, 40 included resident physicians. Five (12.5%) cases received guilty verdicts with mean imprisonment sentences of 5.4 ± 4.1 months. An average of 77.2 months was required for the final adjudication, and surgery residents were involved most frequently (38.9%). Attending physicians were codefendants in 82.5% of cases and were declared guilty in 60% of them. Sepsis (37.5%) was the most common disease in the 40 cases examined, followed by operation/procedure complications (25%). Performance errors (70%) were more than twice as common than diagnostic errors (30%), but the percentage of guilty verdicts in performance error cases was much lower (7.1% vs. 25%). Four negligence cases received nonguilty verdicts, which were mostly due to lack of causation. CONCLUSION: Closed criminal malpractice cases involving residents took on average 6.22 years to conclude. Performance errors accounted for 70% of cases, with treatment of sepsis and operation/procedure complications predominant. To reduce medicolegal risk, residents should learn experiences from analyzing malpractice cases to avoid similar litigious pitfalls.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7284925
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Hindawi
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-72849252020-06-20 Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases Wu, Kuan-Han Chuang, Po-Chun Su, Chih-Min Cheng, Fu-Jen Wu, Chien-Hung Chen, Fu-Cheng Huang, Yii-Ting Emerg Med Int Research Article OBJECTIVE: By analyzing closed criminal malpractice claims involving resident physicians, we aimed to clarify the characteristics of litigations and examine the litigious errors leading to guilty verdicts. DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study. Setting/Study Participants. The verdicts pertaining to physicians recorded on the national database of the Taiwan justice system were reviewed. Main Outcome Measures. The characteristics of litigations were documented. Negligence and guilty verdicts were further analyzed to identify litigious errors. RESULTS: Between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2014, from a total of 436 closed criminal malpractice cases, 40 included resident physicians. Five (12.5%) cases received guilty verdicts with mean imprisonment sentences of 5.4 ± 4.1 months. An average of 77.2 months was required for the final adjudication, and surgery residents were involved most frequently (38.9%). Attending physicians were codefendants in 82.5% of cases and were declared guilty in 60% of them. Sepsis (37.5%) was the most common disease in the 40 cases examined, followed by operation/procedure complications (25%). Performance errors (70%) were more than twice as common than diagnostic errors (30%), but the percentage of guilty verdicts in performance error cases was much lower (7.1% vs. 25%). Four negligence cases received nonguilty verdicts, which were mostly due to lack of causation. CONCLUSION: Closed criminal malpractice cases involving residents took on average 6.22 years to conclude. Performance errors accounted for 70% of cases, with treatment of sepsis and operation/procedure complications predominant. To reduce medicolegal risk, residents should learn experiences from analyzing malpractice cases to avoid similar litigious pitfalls. Hindawi 2020-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7284925/ /pubmed/32566307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/7692964 Text en Copyright © 2020 Kuan-Han Wu et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wu, Kuan-Han
Chuang, Po-Chun
Su, Chih-Min
Cheng, Fu-Jen
Wu, Chien-Hung
Chen, Fu-Cheng
Huang, Yii-Ting
Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title_full Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title_fullStr Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title_full_unstemmed Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title_short Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases
title_sort medical liability of residents in taiwan criminal court: an analysis of closed malpractice cases
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32566307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/7692964
work_keys_str_mv AT wukuanhan medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT chuangpochun medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT suchihmin medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT chengfujen medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT wuchienhung medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT chenfucheng medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases
AT huangyiiting medicalliabilityofresidentsintaiwancriminalcourtananalysisofclosedmalpracticecases