Med Mal News

A study published online in the November 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons concludes ' no great surprise ' that American surgeons suffer emotional fallout when they are sued for medical malpractice. The results were culled from questionnaires sent to more than 25,000 members of the American College of Surgeons asking them whether they had been sued for malpractice within the two previous years and what their reactions had been. Nearly a third of the doctors responded, with a quarter of them reporting that they had been sued for malpractice within the relevant two-year period. Using the data they returned, the study's authors concluded that “[r]ecent malpractice suits were strongly related to burnout ', depression ', and recent thoughts of suicide ' among surgeons.” See study abstract, Balch, C.M., et. al, Personal Consequences of Malpractice Lawsuits on American Surgeons, J Amer Coll Surgeons, Volume 213, Issue 5, Pages 657-667, November 2011 (abstract at www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515%2811%2900978-1/abstract). The researchers also suggested that institutional and societal assistance would likely be of help to physicians experiencing the stresses brought on by becoming the subjects of medical malpractice lawsuits.