Causes Of Claims Research Articles

Management of change order claims in the Egyptian industrial construction sector

The term claim has become of paramount significance in construction projects worldwide. This research is targeted at providing a deeper insight of the status of claims management in general and change order claims in particular with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector, as change orders have proven to be the main cause of claims in this sector. A questionnaire focusing on persistent issues noted in construction management literature within the past fifteen years was addressed to a selected sample of Egyptian construction industrial projects. The results furnished by the sampled projects demonstrated clearly that claims management in the Egyptian industrial construction sector has been suffering from a variety of impediments, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. The results indicated that oral change orders were present in nearly 76% of the sample projects and that half of these oral changes resulted in loss of rights due to improper documentation, which could be attributed to the lack of the contract awareness of the site team and to the “fear of consultant” phenomenon. The main cause of change orders was categorised by approximately 67% of the respondents as the additional scope of work, which was largely attributed to the fast track nature of the industrial sector. The research also identified several factors associated with time and cost increases of the sampled projects, among which were: private ownership and unit rate contracts. Finally, several recommendations for improving claims management are put forward. They included: the formation of a unified form of general contract condition for all the Egyptian industrial sector; the use of information technology systems in lieu of traditional filing procedures and the inclusion of a float‐sharing provision in contracts.

A Simple Preanesthesia Dental Examination

Damage to the teeth can occur during general anesthesia1and is a common cause of claims against anesthesiologists.2,3A detailed knowledge of the preanesthesia dental status provides a reliable way to distinguish valid from fraudulent (and often expensive) claims of injury. Here we present a simple system for performing and documenting a dental examination.In North America, the standard convention for numbering teeth starts with No. 1 as the right upper wisdom tooth, proceeds around the maxillary arch to No. 16, drops to the wisdom tooth immediately below (No. 17), and thence proceeds around the mandibular arch to the lower right wisdom tooth (No. 32). The numbers are assigned to specific teeth, so a missing tooth is counted even though it is not there.The anterior teeth are of most interest to an anesthesiologist because these are most likely to be damaged during intubation, or if a partially anesthetized patient should bite down hard on a rigid airway.3A simplified charting system for these teeth is shown in figure 1. The right upper canine (No. 6) is easy to identify. It and the left upper canine (No. 11) bracket two central incisors, Nos. 8 and 9 (the “Bugs Bunny” teeth) and two smaller lateral incisors on each side (Nos. 7 and 10). The trick to the numbering system is realizing the correspondence between upper and lower teeth. The left lower canine is No. 22 (remember: “11 times 2 equals 22”), and normal teeth are symmetric around to the right lower canine (No. 27).Our typical documentation of a preexisting dental condition contains comments such as “missing No. 6, and chipped No. 23.” The presence of caps, crowns, bridges, and loose teeth should also be noted with the relevant tooth number. A drawing of a specific tooth is an additional way to indicate the degree of damage. On occasion, only a few teeth will be present, and the absence of reference teeth may make it difficult to determine which number or numbers apply. A simple description of the remaining teeth and their locations will suffice in this situation.A clear record of preexisting dental problems provides a firm basis for assessing claims of dental injury during anesthesia.*University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.buffingtoncw@anes.upmc.edu

Medicolegal claims against anaesthetists: a 20 year study.

A total of 222 medicolegal claims involving 160 anaesthetist members of Victoria's largest medical indemnity organization during the period 1980 to 1999 are reported, with 35% of anaesthetists having a claim. There were 49 claims in the first decade and 173 in the second, with 84 related to dental injury being predominant. Other common causes of claims were awareness, epidural anaesthesia, coronial enquiries, nerve palsies, postoperative complications and circulatory arrest. Anaesthetists were joined with surgeons in 17 claims. The average delay between the incident and the resolution of the claim was 11 months for dental claims and 46 months for non-dental ones.

Construction delay: a quantitative analysis

Avoiding construction claims and disputes requires an understanding of the contractual terms and causes of claims. The dual underlying theme of this paper is to investigate the causes of delays on 130 public projects in Jordan and to aid construction managers in establishing adequate evaluation prior to the contract award using quantitative data. Projects investigated in this study included residential, office and administration buildings, school buildings, medical centers and communication facilities. Results of this study indicates the main causes of delay in construction of public projects relate to designers, user changes, weather, site conditions, late deliveries, economic conditions and increase in quantity. The presence of these factors have an impact on the successful completion of the projects at the time contractually specified. The findings suggest that special attention to factors identified in this study will help industry practitioners in minimising the risk of contract disputes.

Nerve injury associated with anesthesia: a closed claims analysis.

Nerve injury associated with anesthesia is a significant source of morbidity for patients and liability for anesthesiologists. To identify recurrent and emerging patterns of injury we analyzed the current American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Closed Claims Project Database and performed an in-depth analysis of claims for nerve injury that were entered into the database since the authors' initial report of the subject. The ASA Closed Claims Database is a standardized collection of case summaries derived from the closed claims files of professional liability insurance companies. Claims for nerve injury that were not included in the authors' 1990 report were reviewed in-depth. Six hundred seventy (16% of 4,183) claims were for anesthesia-related nerve injury. The most frequent sites of injury were the ulnar nerve (28%), brachial plexus (20%), lumbosacral nerve root (16%), and spinal cord (13%). Ulnar nerve (85%) injuries were more likely to have occurred in association with general anesthesia, whereas spinal cord (58%) and lumbosacral nerve root (92%) injuries were more likely to occur with regional techniques. Ulnar nerve injury occurred predominately in men (75%) and was also more apt to have a delayed onset of symptoms (62%) than other nerve injuries. Spinal cord injuries were the leading cause of claims for nerve injury that occurred in the 1990s. New strategies for prevention of nerve damage cannot be recommended at this time because the mechanism for most injuries, particularly those of the ulnar nerve, is not apparent.

Consequences of Construction Conflict: A Hong Kong Perspective

While conflict is inevitable on construction projects, it is necessary for management to differentiate destructive from constructive conflict, and to anticipate and minimize the former, while carefully controlling the latter. Unresolved construction claims are found to be a major source of destructive disputes. A literature survey of common categories and causes of claims in other contractual regimes is supplemented by the results from an opinion survey of 88 respondents from the Hong Kong industry. A further focus on the more frequently occurring and higher-value claims categories is suggested, and facilitated by the identification of such significant categories through the analysis of the data collected from 61 construction projects in Hong Kong. The identification of such significant categories and common causes of claims is presented as the first phase of a strategy to address the root causes of avoidable claims and to minimize the adverse consequences of destructive conflict.

Construction Claims and Disputes: Causes and Cost/Time Overruns

Avoiding construction claims and disputes requires understanding of the contractual terms, early nonadversarial communication, and understanding of the causes of claims. The present paper addresses the latter issue by presenting the results of a pilot study undertaken by the University of Calgary and Revay and Associates Ltd. This paper examines, among other things, the causes of claims, delays, and cost overruns on 24 projects in Western Canada. Projects investigated in this study included civil, institutional, high‐rise apartment building, and petrochemical. To identify some of the critical elements in construction contracts, the investigative process also included determining the causes of claims, categories of compensation for claims, and contract clauses quoted in claims. Results of this pilot study indicated that critical elements in construction contracts relate to changes/ extras, disputes, soil/site conditions, and delay. It is the writers' opinion that special attention to factors identified in ...

Analysis of Highway Project Construction Claims

This paper which analyzes the nature of highway construction contract claims, offers specific insights into both the classification and frequency of claims and the fundamental causes of claims. The study analyzed 71 claims for additional compensation processed by a large public transportation agency between 1982 and 1987. It is emphasized that highway agencies should devote greater attention to the root cuases of problems, such as inadequate effort applied to the quality assurance/quality control of engineering, drafting, and specification development efforts. It is pointed out that owners may find it in their best interest to allocate related risks equitably.

Claim management

Construction contracts are seldom ideal, and claims for time extensions or financial compensation often have to be made by one party on another. This paper is concerned with the typical causes of claims, how claims are analysed, and how they can be prevented. It also looks at the legal implications of CPM schedules, and at the importance of the efficient management of records.

Professional liability claims prevention.

Analysed in retrospect to trace causes, nearly all professional liability claims are found to have been preventable. But when we compare these real causes of claims and suits with the kinds of professional liability claims prevention we often hear recommended, the treatment appears to be directed at symptoms rather than at the disease. Professional liability claims will be neither prevented nor reduced in size or frequency by educating attorneys, by reducing the amount of insurance physicians carry, by attempts to cover up in cases in which the doctor is legally liable for injuries suffered by the patient, by seeking special legislation that would in effect place the physician above the law, by circularizing lists of patients who have sued doctors, or by any other action that does not strike at the real causes of claims and suits. Any program that is unrealistic, that is unobjective in its approach or that