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BACKGROUND: Medico-legal complaints against physicians are a significant source of anxiety and could be associated with defensive medical practices that may correlate with poor patient outcomes. Little is known about patient concerns brought to regulatory bodies and courts against dermatologists in Canada. OBJECTIVE: To characterize factors contributing to medico-legal complaints brought against dermatologists in Canada. METHODS: The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) repository was queried for all closed cases involving dermatologists over the past decade. Aggregate, anonymized data was reviewed and case outcomes, patient harm, and contributing factors were extracted. RESULTS: Nearly one-fifth of all dermatologists who are CMPA members have been named in at least one medico-legal case between 2013 to 2022. A total of 396 civil-legal actions or College complaint cases involving dermatologists were closed at the CMPA during this timeframe. The most common patient allegations were deficient assessment (34%), diagnostic error (28%), and unprofessional manner (22%). Nearly half of patients experienced a harmful event, the majority of which were asymptomatic or mild. The most frequently identified contributing factors related to providers were poor clinical decision making (n = 73), lack of situational awareness (n = 67), and conduct and boundary issues (n = 59). Team factors included a breakdown of communication with patients (n = 124). CONCLUSIONS: Improved communication with patients for informed consent, treatment plans, clinical follow-up, and documentation of thorough clinical patient assessments can improve patient satisfaction and health outcomes, and mitigate dermatologists' medico-legal risk.
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PURPOSE: Adolescent and young adult patients occupy a clinically transitional space between pediatric and adult care. Youth with chronic conditions and special healthcare needs may have trouble accessing and receiving appropriate care in this transition, which may lead to patient safety issues and medicolegal risks for physicians. The objectives of this article were to explore patient safety issues and identify medicolegal risks for physicians. METHODS: A national repository was retrospectively searched for medicolegal cases (MLCs) involving complaints from youth. The study included MLCs closed at the Canadian Medical Protective Association between 2013 and 2022 involving youth. The study participants were adolescents and young adults aged ≥ 15 and ≤ 21 years with medical complexity. The frequencies and proportions of patient safety events and medicolegal risks for physicians were calculated by exploring factors that contributed to each incident using established frameworks. RESULTS: A total of 182 eligible MLCs were identified. Of 206 involved physicians, 55 were psychiatrists. The most common reasons for patient complaints were deficient assessment, diagnostic error, and communication breakdown with the patient and/or family. More than half of the cases were related to a harmful incident. Peer experts reviewed the cases and identified factors such as a deficient assessment, a failure to perform a test or intervention, failure to refer the patient, and insufficient provider knowledge/skill as contributing to the patient safety event. DISCUSSION: The impact of our findings is to identify gaps in care delivery to youth that can inform practitioners of ways to mitigate the gaps and improve patient care and health outcomes.
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Purpose: Breast imaging accounts for a large proportion of medico-legal cases involving radiologists in several countries and may be a disincentive to breast imaging. As this has not been well studied in Canada, we evaluated the key medico-legal issues of breast imaging in Canada and their implications for health care providers and patient safety. Methods: In collaboration with Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), we obtained information from the medico-legal repository, including civil-legal, medical regulatory authority (College) and hospital complaints occurring between 2002-2021. Canadian Classification of Health Interventions (CCI) codes were used for breast imaging and biopsy. Trend analysis was done comparing cases involving breast imaging/biopsy to all cases where a radiologist was named. Results: Radiologists were named in 3108 medico-legal cases, 188 (6%, 188/3108) of which were CCI coded for breast imaging or biopsy. Factors related to radiologists were most frequent (64%, 120/188), followed by team (23.4%, 44/188) and system (6.9%, 13/188). Equal representation of male and female radiologists was found (IRR = 1.22; 95% CI: .89, 1.56). In a 10-year test window from 2006 - 2015 we identified an increasing trend for all cases involving radiologists (P = 0,0128) but a decreasing trend for cases coded with breast imaging or biopsy (P = 0,0099). Conclusions: A significant decrease in cases involving breast imaging were found from 2006-2015, accounting for 6% of the medico-legal cases. The lower risk of breast imaging medico-legal issues may encourage more radiologists in breast imaging.
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OBJECTIVES: Assisted human reproduction (AHR) is a complex process of clinical, laboratory, and organizational activities that involve risk and safety. The regulation of the Canadian fertility industry is a mix of federal and provincial/territorial responsibility. Oversight of care is fragmented as patients, donors, and surrogates may each live in different jurisdictions. The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) undertook a retrospective analysis of CMPA medico-legal data to identify the contributing factors to medico-legal risks for Canadian physicians providing AHR services. METHODS: Experienced CMPA medical analysts, reviewed information from closed cases. A previously reported medical coding methodology was applied to a 5-year retrospective descriptive analysis of CMPA cases closed between 2015 and 2019, involving physicians caring for patients with infertility seeking AHR. Class action legal cases were excluded. All contributing factors were analyzed using the CMPA Contributing Factor Framework.1 Cases were de-identified and reported at the aggregate level for analysis to ensure confidentiality for both patients and health care providers. RESULTS: There were 860 gynaecology cases with comprehensive information and peer expert review. Of these, 43 cases involved patients seeking AHR. Due to the small sample size, the results presented are for descriptive purposes only. AHR cases had an unfavourable outcome for the physician in 29 cases. Diagnostic error was noted in 10 cases. The most common patient allegations were related to a breakdown in communication. Peer experts were critical of patient care in 34 cases. These were divided among provider, team, and system factors. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic error was the most common clinical concern. Deficient clinical decision-making and communication breakdown with the patient contributed to these errors. Enhanced clinical decision-making, through heightened situational awareness, strengthened diagnostic test follow-up, and improved communication with the health care team may reduce medico-legal complaints related to AHR and improve patient safety.
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Gynecology , Infertility , Humans , Retrospective Studies , Canada , ReproductionABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the determinants of nurses' intentions to practice continuous labor support. DESIGN: A descriptive survey based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. SETTING: A large, urban Canadian hospital with 2 sites and 7,000 births per year. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-seven registered nurses from 2 birthing units. RESULTS: Scores measuring nurses' attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions regarding continuous labor support for women with epidural analgesia were significantly lower than those for women without epidural analgesia (p<.0001). Multiple regression analyses revealed that previous labor support courses, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control explained 55% of the variance in nurses' intentions to provide continuous labor support to women without epidural analgesia while 88% of the variance in intentions to provide continuous labor support to women with epidural analgesia was explained by subjective norms and attitudes. Subjective norms made the most significant contribution to the variance in nurses' intentions to provide continuous labor support. Top perceived organizational barriers to continuous labor support included unit acuity and method of patient assignment. CONCLUSION: Nurses' intentions to provide continuous labor support are lower for women receiving epidural analgesia and are influenced by the perceived social pressures on their unit. Nurses view organizational barriers as important factors influencing their ability to provide continuous labor support.