About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1975 Duke L.J. 1197 (1975)
The Relationship between Medical Malpractice and Quality of Care

handle is hein.journals/duklr1975 and id is 1223 raw text is: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND QUALITY OF CAREt ROBERT H. BRooK,* RUDOLF L. BRUTOCO,** AND KATHLEEN N. WILLIAMS* * * INTRODUCTION Medical malpractice claims are increasing at a rate of about ten percent per year.' Seven chairmen of neurosurgery departments in leading New York hospitals have a combined total of twenty-five mal- practice suits filed against them, seeking an aggregate total of $6.3 million.' In 1960, total malpractice premiums in the United States were $60 million; by 1975, the total will be about $1 billion.3 Many insurance companies have stopped providing professional liability cov- erage and some physicians have been temporarily unable to obtain malpractice insurance at any price. California, although perhaps at the frontier of the medical malpractice issue, is not atypical. The number of claims per 100 physician policy years there has increased from about twelve in 1968-69 to about twenty-five in 1975.4 In 1974-75, six jury awards in California were for over-a million dollars each; in the state's entire history, there have been only sixteen awards of over a million dollars each.5 Rates for malpractice insurance increased by 400 percent * M.D., Sc. D.; Assistant Professor of Medicine, UCLA; Senior Staff Health Serv- ices Researcher, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. ** Schools of Medicine and Public Health, UCLA; Consultant, The Rand Corpo- ration, Santa Monica, Calif. •** M.A.; Graduate Fellow, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. t The research reported in this Article was performed pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, D.C. The opin- ions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the authors, and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the United States Government. 1. Liability Versus Protection, MED. ECON., Oct. 29, 1973, at 93. 2. Evidence Suggests Causes of Professional Liability Problem, 2 CoMMENTARY, No. 5, at 2 (Med. Liability Comm'n, July 1975). 3. Now Doctors Charge Insurers With Malpractice, BusINESs WEEK, Aug. 4, 1975, at 40; cf. Steves, Medical Malpractice In Perspective, 28 CPCU ANNALS 209, 215 (1975). 4. State by State Survey Finds Professional Liability Woes in Many Regions, Am. MED. NEws, Feb. 24, 1975, at 9. 5. Id. 1197

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most