0:00

You might ask why are radiologists

0:03

sued as often as they are?

0:04

Well, as you know, the,

0:06

our data is retrievable from the standpoint of a pax,

0:09

and that's been happening for what, over about 15 years.

0:12

We really don't have a personal relationship

0:14

with the patient and therefore suing us as not as traumatic

0:18

as suing the person that's been taking care of you

0:20

and your family for 20 years.

0:23

The history of radiologists is

0:26

that we are poor communicators

0:27

and that's why we're down in the basement.

0:30

And we also know

0:31

that we have improved technology every year,

0:34

and that that technology can detect abnormalities

0:38

or findings on studies from years ago

0:41

that when we didn't have such technologies.

0:44

We're also vulnerable because we have high salaries and

0:47

therefore are wealthy by and large.

0:49

And also we read a high volume of cases.

0:51

You know, typically we read 60 to a hundred cases in a day.

0:55

How many patients does a clinician see in

0:58

a day in their clinic?

0:59

Every half hour, you know, maybe 16.

1:02

So the volume is also an issue. What are the numbers?

1:07

71% of radiologists have been named in a malpractice suit.

1:11

We, we really should not think of this as an aberration.

1:14

It's kind of the norm that during your career,

1:18

it's highly likely that you will be named in a suit.

1:20

When I did a poll of the American Society

1:23

of Neuroradiologist, I found that 50% of

1:26

neuroradiologist had been sued.

1:28

And of those 50%, 50% had been sued more than once.

1:32

The mean payout, by

1:34

and large, around $205,619.

1:39

Remember, what you're going to learn is that typical

1:42

coverage is for one to $2 million in coverage

1:46

in your malpractice insurance policy.

1:50

The estimate is that there are about 732 claims against

1:54

radiologists each year in America,

1:57

and the most common radiologists

2:00

to be sued are those in breast imaging, musculoskeletal

2:04

and chest, with my subspecialty neuroradiology coming in

2:08

fourth, and then abdomen number five.

2:10

And most of these are about cancer.

2:14

We are as a subspecialty.

2:17

Number seven, after obs, ob, GYN people,

2:22

bad baby cases, neurosurgeons, a lot of back

2:26

surgery cases with failed back surgery, ed docs,

2:30

anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons, again,

2:33

back in cervical spine surgeries and general surgeons.

2:37

Of the cases that we are sued about, as I said previously,

2:41

most of them are breast cancer cases, lung cancer cases,

2:47

cancer in general.

2:49

In one fourth of the cases,

2:51

there was a communication failure to the clinical service,

2:54

which is somewhat unusual and should be corrected.

2:57

37%,

2:59

37.7% of the suits had some payment.

3:03

It may not be in a judgment at trial,

3:06

but it may be through mediation that there was some payment

3:10

that was paid out to the plaintiff.

3:11

So you can expect that.

3:13

So with that, we'll get started on part one

3:17

of Medical Legal Primer for radiologists.

3:20

Thank you very much for your attention

3:21

and I hope you enjoy the course.