Medico-legal risk of infectious disease physicians in Canada: A retrospective review.
| Autor: | Pacheco K; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada., Ji J; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada., Barbosa K; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada., Lemay K; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada., Fortier JH; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada., Garber GE; Department of Safe Medical Care, Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.; Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada [J Assoc Med Microbiol Infect Dis Can] 2024 Jan 16; Vol. 8 (4), pp. 319-327. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 16 (Print Publication: 2024). |
| DOI: | 10.3138/jammi-2023-0022 |
| Abstrakt: | Objective: There is little known about the medico-legal risk for infectious disease specialists in Canada. The objective of this study was to identify the causes of these medico-legal risks with the goal of improving patient safety and outcomes. Methods: A 10-year retrospective analysis of Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) closed medico-legal cases from 2012 to 2021 was performed. Peer expert criticism was used to identify factors that contributed to the medico-legal cases at the provider, team, or system level, and were contrasted with the patient complaint. Results: During the study period there were 571 infectious disease physician members of the CMPA. There were 96 patient medico-legal cases: 45 College complaints, 40 civil legal matters, and 11 hospital complaints. Ten cases were associated with severe patient harm or death. Patients were most likely to complain about perceived deficient assessments (54%), diagnostic errors (53%), inadequate monitoring or follow-up (20%), and unprofessional manner (20%). In contrast, peer experts were most critical of the areas of diagnostic assessment (20%), deficient assessment (10%), failure to perform test/intervention (8%), and failure to refer (6%). Conclusion: While infectious disease physicians tend to have lower medico-legal risks compared to other health care providers, these risks still do exist. This descriptive study provides insights into the types of cases, presenting conditions, and patient allegations associated with their practice. Competing Interests: All authors were employees of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, a not-for-profit mutual defense organization for physicians, at the time of this study. No other competing interests were declared. (© Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI Canada), 2023.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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