Is Hospital Medicine a Low-Risk Specialty?

The hospitalist model introduces many care handovers and transient doctor-patient relationships, factors that seemingly would increase risk for malpractice claims. Investigators evaluated >52,000 medical malpractice claims — from 20 different insurance programs covering >3000 U.S. healthcare organizations — representing approximately 30% of closed claims in the U.S. from 1997 to 2011.

Only 272 medical malpractice claims were filed against internal medicine hospitalists (defined as internists who spend >50% of their time on inpatient care), corresponding to a rate of 0.52 claims per 100 physician coverage-years (PCYs). This rate was significantly lower than the rate of claims against nonhospitalist internal medicine physicians (1.91 claims pe…