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Doctor-owned insurer looks at why patients sue

When a Covington patient is injured by a doctor, we don’t ask the physician to decide if he or she has done wrong. Doctors are simply human. They can’t be objective about what they do any more than folks in other professions can.

When allegations of negligence and medical malpractice are made, we have a court decide the merits of the case. The judge has no vested interest in your claim or the doctor’s defense and can therefore be considered impartial.

A doctor-owned medical malpractice insurance company is unlikely to be completely objective about physician and hospital negligence. Nevertheless, when The Doctors Company recently released a report on why orthopedic surgeons are sued for malpractice, we took notice.

Even if the results of the study should be taken with a grain of salt, it contains interesting information. For instance, the 3 most common patient allegations against orthopedists are improper performance of surgery (46 percent), improper management of the surgical patient (16 percent), and allegations involving failed diagnoses (13 percent say their orthopedist failed to diagnose their condition, delayed the diagnosis or got the diagnosis wrong).

However, when “expert physician reviewers” analyzed the patient claims, they identified several factors contributing to patient injuries, such as technical performance (35 percent). This category refers to poor surgical technique and misidentification of an anatomical structure. It also includes injuries that were part of the known risk factor inherent in the procedure.

The study is interesting and worth reading. It shows that even doctors insuring doctors understand that in medical malpractice cases, negligence is involved in a variety of ways, from surgical mistakes to diagnosis errors to mistakes involving prescribed medications, and more.

An experienced Kentucky medical practice attorney from TLF: The Medical Injury Firm will assess your situation, advise you of your legal options, and help you pursue full compensation from those responsible for your injuries.

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We are happy to offer a free consultation to evaluate your case. If you hire us as your legal counsel, we will represent you on a contingency-fee basis. You will pay no attorneys’ fees unless we recover financial damages.