Taking Better Care of Patients Reduces Malpractice Claims

Today's Shocking Study Findings come to us courtesy of the RAND Corporation. The study, released on April 15, 2010 is titled "Is Better Patient Safety Associated with Less Malpractice Activity? Evidence from California".

Key Findings:

Reducing the number of preventable patient injuries in California hospitals from 2001 to 2005 was associated with a corresponding drop in malpractice claims against physicians

Researchers studied both medical malpractice claims and adverse events such as post-surgical infections across California counties and found that changes in the frequency of adverse events were strongly correlated with corresponding changes in the volume of medical malpractice claims.

These findings suggest that putting a greater focus on improving safety performance in health care settings could benefit medical providers as well as patients

So, there you have it. Hospitals and Doctors now know that if they do a better job with patients, they will not get sued as much.

Sources: U.S. News, Physorg.com and RAND