title: Standard of care and anesthesia liability.
abstract: For the past 3 years, the Committee on Professional Liability of the American Society of Anesthesiologists has been studying records of closed malpractice claims files for anesthesia-related patient injuries. The database of 1004 lawsuits was examined to define the impact of the "standard of care," as judged by a practicing group of anesthesiologists, on the likelihood and amount of financial recovery. We found that payment was made in more than 80% of claims made by patients who were judged to have received substandard anesthetic care. Payment also was made in more than 40% of claims when the anesthesia care was judged to be appropriate. We conclude that in the tort-based system of compensation for anesthesia-related injury, the patient has a high probability of financial recovery for injury caused by substandard care. However, if the anesthesiologist provides appropriate care there is still a greater than 40% chance that payment will be made for the claim of malpractice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98195.
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Cheney
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Posner
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Caplan
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D000776:Anesthesiology; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D007351:Insurance, Liability / Q000191:economics*; D008318:Malpractice / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009719:Nurse Anesthetists; D010380:Peer Review; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States