title: A retrospective review of medical errors adjudicated in court between 2002 and 2012 in Spain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper describes verdicts in court involving injury-producing medical errors in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive analysis of 1041 closed court verdicts from Spain between January 2002 and December 2012. It was determined whether a medical error had occurred, and among those with medical error (n = 270), characteristics and results of litigation were analyzed. Data on litigation were obtained from the Thomson Reuters Aranzadi Westlaw databases.
  
  
  METHODS
  All verdicts involving health system were reviewed and classified according to the presence of medical error. Among those, contributory factors, medical specialty involved, health impact (death, disability and severity) and results of litigation (resolution, time to verdict and economic compensations) were described.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medical errors were involved in 25.9% of court verdicts. The cause of medical error was a diagnosis-related problem in 25.1% and surgical treatment in 22.2%, and Obstetrics-Gynecology was the most frequent involved specialty (21%). Most of them were of high severity (59.4%), one-third (32%) caused death. The average time interval between the occurrence of the error and the verdict was 7.8 years. The average indemnity payment was €239 505.24; the highest was psychiatry (€7 585 075.86) and the lowest was Emergency Medicine (€69 871.19).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that in Spain medical errors are common among verdicts involving the health system, most of them causing high-severity adverse outcomes. The interval between the medical error and the verdict is excessive, and there is a wide range of economic compensation.
authors.affiliation: Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions, Cambridge, MA, USA Epidemiology and Evaluation Department, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain Escuela Superior de Enfermería del Mar. Centro adscrito a la Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Programa de Doctorado en Metodología de la Investigación Biomédica y Salud Pública, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Priscila
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giraldo
authors.affiliation: Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions, Cambridge, MA, USA Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Evaluation Department, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Madrid, Spain Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Evaluation Department, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Merce
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Comas
authors.affiliation: Risk Management Foundation of Harvard Medical Institutions, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dywer
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Evaluation Department, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Madrid, Spain Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Castells
mesh_terms: D035881:Compensation and Redress / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain
keywords: health policy; medical error; patient safety; trial; verdict