Causes of Health Providers’ Malpractices in Records Referred to Forensic Medicine Organization in Yazd

Despite technical advances in medical diagnosis and treatment, the malpractice of health providers has increased, which can lead to a decrease in people's trust. Medical malpractice means unintentional failure to perform a task, which includes misdiagnosis, treatment plan error, or disease management error. This study was conducted in 2018 to investigate the causes of health providers’ malpractices in cases referred to Forensic Medicine Organization in Yazd.

This was a cross-sectional and applied study conducted in 2019 in Yazd province. The research population included all the cases of complaints about health providers’ malpractices in cases referred to Forensic Medicine Commission of Yazd Province in 2108. Data were collected by a two-part checklist and were analyzed by SPSS 16 software.

Out of 96 cases examined in 2018, 53 of the plaintiffs were men, and 43 of them were women. Most of them were in the age group of 20-40, and the most of complaints were related to government hospitals. Regarding the cause of malpractice, the highest frequency was related to carelessness, non-compliance with government regulations, and a combination of several factors, negligence and lack of proficiency, respectively. Moreover, obstetricians and gynecologists (18.8 %), surgery (13.5 %), and anesthesia (10.4 %) reported the highest number of malpractice cases. Only 58.3 % of the cases were proved.

Identifying the root causes of medical malpractice, changing individual approach to systemic approach in dealing with error factors, increasing the awareness of the treatment staff of the rules and consequences of malpractice, and notifying health care providers of guidelines through safety committees can reduce malpractice of treatment staff, and consequently, reduce complaints from them.