title: Surgeon demographics and medical malpractice in adult reconstruction.
abstract: Orthopaedic adult reconstruction subspecialists are sued for alleged medical malpractice at a rate over twice that of the physician population as a whole, and the rate appears disproportionately high in the first decade of practice. The overall risk of a malpractice claim is related to years spent in practice. After 30 years in an adult reconstruction practice, the cumulative rate of being sued at least once is over 90%. Previous investigations suggest factors such as practice setting and size, fellowship training, years in practice, volume, and location of practice correlate with malpractice risk. In contrast, we were unable to identify any relationship between the type, size, or location of practice, fellowship training, or surgery volume and the risk of an adult reconstruction surgeon being named as a defendant in a malpractice suit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Level V, economic and decision analysis. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
authors.affiliation: Maine Joint Replacement Institute, Portland, ME, USA. mjri@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: McGrory
authors.forename: B Sonny
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Bal
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: York
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Macaulay
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: McConnell
mesh_terms: D019643:Arthroplasty, Replacement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002983:Clinical Competence; D013502:General Surgery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008318:Malpractice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011336:Probability; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States