Medical Errors, Medical Malpractice and Death Cases in North Carolina

• In Event: 322 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Healthcare Organizations

Abstract

A study of hospitals in North Carolina from January 2002 to December 2007, reports that there was no statistically significant decrease in medical errors during this period, in spite of efforts to reduce them (Landrigen et al 2010). The present study utilizes a medical liability insurer’s archive of death cases in North Carolina from 2002 to 2009 (156 cases involving 401 physician- defendants). Given the implications of medical errors for health care delivery we consider whether demographic variables (age, gender, marital status and race) and system variables (hospital involvement and number of physician defendants) are predictive of higher risks of death. Our dependent variables are three major categories of error associated with patient death in the archive (diagnostic, treatment and surgical). We find that men are significantly more at risk for diagnostic errors than women. There is some evidence that age is predictive of treatment errors. Policy implications are discussed.

Authors

• Catherine T. Harris, Wake Forest University

• Ralph Peeples, Wake Forest University