Factors associated with medical malpractice: results from a pilot study (original) (raw)

The medical malpractice problem is not new. It can be traced through history from provisions in the Code of Hammurabi to acknowledgement by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, to doctrinal development in fourteenth century England.' The first reported English case occurred in 1375, and within fifty years, health care providers took out quasi-insurance policies on particular patients.' The first officially reported American case occurred in 1794, and the reporting of twenty-seven more cases in the next fifty years stimulated an early version of medical review panels, as well as the first physician exodus from practice in 1845.' The "crisis" of the 1970's came and went, only to revive in the mid-1980's. Indeed, definitions for the "crises" seem to depend on one's perspective. 4