Malpractice claims associated with infectious causes

Abstract

Medical errors leading to malpractice claims have had a continuously increasing frequency in the last years in Romania. In this study we try to analyze the characteristics of malpractice claims associated with infectious pathology. Material and method. A study was conducted on 83 cases with malpractice claims, on a four year period. Thirty cases included in the causal chain an infective process (MOSF as a terminal event was excluded). Results. Cases with associated infectious pathology had a lower mean age, a male predominance, an increased severity and mortality. Its presence however wasn’t associated with a significant increase in medical errors frequency. Conclusions. Infectious processes, even if are associated with an increased severity and mortality, don’t have a stronger association with the positive identification of medical errors compared with medical treatments not associated with infectious pathology during their course.