A Decade of Malpractice Data: A New Analysis for Your Practice
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- Key finding: Surgical and diagnosis-related cases represent the largest share of malpractice claims, based on analysis of over 19,000 closed cases from 2014–2023.
- Why it matters: Most claims involve everyday clinical environments, offices, clinics, inpatient units, and ICUs, where physicians manage complex decisions under time pressure.
- Practice impact: More than three-quarters of cases involve clinical judgment factors, often combined with communication or diagnostic-tracking failures.
Physicians are navigating relentless clinical volume, administrative complexity, and increasing regulatory scrutiny; even small process failures can carry outsized consequences. A new 2025 data report from MLMIC and MedPro Group, developed in collaboration with Candello, offers one of the most detailed views to date of how and where malpractice risk develops across real-world practice settings.
The analysis draws on more than 19,000 clinically coded, closed medical and surgical cases spanning 2014–2023, providing rare longitudinal insight into claim frequency, severity, and underlying causes. Surgical and diagnosis-related cases account for the largest share of total volume, with orthopedic surgery, general surgery, ophthalmology, internal medicine, and family medicine among the most frequently represented specialties.
Importantly, the data confirms that risk is not confined to rare or catastrophic scenarios. Events in offices, clinics, inpatient rooms, and ICUs account for a substantial portion of total claims, underscoring how everyday workflow design and decision-making environments shape outcomes.
More than three-quarters of all cases involve clinical judgment factors, often failure to reconcile symptoms, delayed testing, or missed follow-up, frequently compounded by communication gaps or breakdowns in diagnostic tracking systems.
For physicians already balancing patient safety with staffing shortages, documentation burdens, and after-hours coverage, these findings reinforce a difficult truth: system reliability matters as much as individual expertise. Risk reduction increasingly depends on structured follow-up processes, standardized handoffs, and realistic workload design, rather than just on clinical knowledge.
A Ten-Year Overview of Medical and Surgical Cases (MLMIC, MedPro Group).
