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Since 2001, all malpractice claims at the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) have been assigned to an expert committee for review; UMHS admits fault and offers compensation when the committee determines that an error has occurred and defends cases when no error is identified. Settlements made are in the name of the institution, not in the names of individual practitioners. To assess the effect of the program, researchers examined several standard metrics (total claims, claim rates, costs, time to closure) for all claims reported to the UMHS risk management database from 1995 to 2007.
The average number of paid claims per year decreased from 53 before the program was implemented to 32 after. The average monthly rate of claims decreas…