Guest Blogger: OpEd From PA Patient Safety Authority Board Member
DECLINING MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIMS, INCREASING MEDICAL ERRORS A simple analysis by the Committee for Justice for All in Kingston, Pennsylvania compared public information available on medical malpractice claims as opposed to medical errors. The data consists of Mcare Fund payouts, commercial insurance claims and Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority data. The Mcare Fund is a creature of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department and supplies half the medical malpractice insurance coverage that doctors and hospitals are required to carry as a result of medical errors that cause harm to patients. The data shows the number of case filings according to the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts as of April 2009. In the year 2000 the number of case filings throughout the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was 2,632. That already small number fell every year for which statistics have been kept down to 1,602 in 2008. Considering the number of hospital admissions in Pennsylvania, that ...