Malpractice Claims Have Skyrocketed, AMA Says

An American Medical Assn. report says medical malpractice claims have reached a “crisis” stage, with three times as many filed today as a decade ago and plaintiffs winning record settlements.

Awards and settlements in malpractice suits “are breaking all records,” said the AMA report, titled “Professional Liability in the ‘80s.”

“The increase in the number of over-$1-million jury verdicts has been phenomenal,” AMA lawyer B.J. Anderson said in a telephone interview today. In 1975, there were three verdicts of $1 million or more in medical malpractice suits, while in 1982 there were 45 such verdicts.

“The biggest problem and the biggest awards are for so-called defective babies,” Anderson said. “The public has very high expectations for a perfect result, and less than perfect results tend to trigger a suit.”

The report, for example, noted that in mid-1984, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told a congressional committee that 60% of all these specialists in the nation have been sued, 20% of them three or more times.

According to the first report, 16 malpractice claims were filed for every 100 doctors in 1983, a 20% increase over the year before. In 1975, fewer than five claims per 100 doctors were filed.