SUMMARY & CONCLUSION
M
edical malpractice is a rising and central topic for the forensic pathologist and forensic autopsies are a mandatory step in the judicial evaluation of the suspected medical malpractice. Reliable national and international registers about the medical malpractice are still missing and nowadays the necroscopic archives are therefore one of the best sources of data about such a complex phenomenon.
Medical malpractice is defined as "physician's failure to conform to the standard of care for treatment of the patient's condition, or a lack of skill, or negligence in providing care to the patient, which is the direct cause of an injury to the patient.
Medical malpractice represent serious problems in the health system and are a threat to patients’ safety. All the patients are potentially vulnerable and medical malpractices are very costly in terms of social, economic and human aspects.
The average of medical malpractice allegation against healthcare professionals, healthcare centers, and general hospitals is continually increasing in recent years. The causes for this increase include continuous renewal in medical field due to progressive discovered new technology, rapid allocation of these innovations with lack of good training, and rise in education and knowledge of the public and media coverage.
Factors leading to malpractice form a multifactorial problem including responsibilities of healthcare workers and healthcare system. In malpractice, many factors increasing the risk of errors including human factor, environmental factor and medical devices act in a nested pattern.
This study aimed to assess the problem of medical malpractice and study the epidemiological and medicolegal aspects of reported cases at medico legal region of Benha, Qalyubia governorate.
This record based descriptive study is based on retrospective statistical analysis of all alleged malpractice cases in Qalyubia governorate during the period from the start of 2010 till the end of 2014. The data were collected from archived reports on which medicolegal examination and autopsies were conducted at medicolegal region of Benha, Ministry of Justice, Egypt. These collected data had been subjected to both epidemiological and medicolegal analysis.
This study revealed some aspects of malpractice problem in Qalyubia governorate from (2010 to 2014) and demonstrated that the total number of claims in this period was 113 cases and 2013 had the highest number of malpractice claims and also the highest percentage of confirmed cases.
The largest number of malpractice claims was among age group (18-40 years), whilst the least number was among the oldest age group (above 60 years).
The study showed that, females had higher percentage of malpractice claims and most of them at reproductive age (3rd, 4th and 5th decade) which explained by the higher percentage of malpractice claims in obstetrics & gynecology specialty.
The current study demonstrated that majority of the studied cases lived in urban areas. Most of malpractice claims were recorded as medical negligence.
There is increase in surgical malpractice claims (69.9%) within total medical malpractice cases.
The outcome of malpractice among the studied cases in this study revealed that other injuries rather than death and permanent infirmity had the highest percentage
Regarding health providing center, this study found that public hospitals had the highest malpractice claims and regarding approval of claims, public hospitals also had the highest percentage of non- confirmed claims.
Regarding medical specialties, the current study showed that Gynecology and obstetrics had the highest percentage (31.9%) followed by general surgery (19.5%) then anesthesia (12.4%).
The present study concluded that most of the studied cases were adult females lived in urban areas. Most of claims were not confirmed and recorded as claims of medical negligence, occurred more in public hospitals. Gynecology and obstetrics had the highest percentage of claims. |
