Candello Medical Malpractice Claims Data to be Presented at 1st European Diagnostic Error in Medicine Conference

BOSTON, MA, June 23, 2016 –Data that analyze the drivers of diagnosis-related medical malpractice claims—mined from CRICO Strategies national Comparative Benchmarking System (now Candello)—will be presented at the 1^st European Diagnostic Error in Medicine (DEM) Conference to be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 30–July 1, 2016.

The DEM conference will explore opportunities to improve diagnosis from a range of research areas, including human factors, engineering, psychology and health care informatics. “Analysis of our CBS data identifies where and when diagnosis-related errors most commonly occur, and furthers discussion about the changes necessary to prevent them. This is a great opportunity to share our data findings with our global patient safety colleagues,” says Mark E. Reynolds, President of CRICO.

To understand common vulnerabilities driving medical malpractice claims in the US, Candello maintains a national database of more than 350,000 medical malpractice claims from medical centers and insurance organizations across the country. This robust repository represents approximately 30 percent of US medical malpractice claims. Diagnostic Failure: A Medical Malpractice Claims Review will be presented as an oral abstract by Dana Siegal, RN, CPHRM, CPPS, Director of Patient Safety for CRICO Strategies. Submitted abstracts went through peer review and the top ranked abstracts will be presented by their authors.

Siegal and her colleagues conducted an analysis of data derived from CRICO’s proprietary clinical taxonomy, which provides detailed insights into common causation patterns and trends that drive medical error and harm. The analysis of 22,292 medical malpractice claims filed 2008-2012, found that 21% were linked to diagnostic error. Of the diagnosis-related cases, 51% occurred in ambulatory care, 28% inpatient, and 16% in the emergency department. “Analysis of medical malpractice cases offers a unique lens into the specific drivers of diagnostic failures,” explains Siegal. “Our taxonomy allows us to identify detailed contributing factors across numerous categories (e.g., communication, clinical judgment, test result management) enabling us to implement targeted risk mitigation solutions.”

As cited in the IOM Report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, “CRICO (Strategies) benchmarking studies demonstrate the utility of these data (malpractice claims) for understanding where in the diagnostic process errors are most likely to occur and what factors contributed to the error. This can be useful for designing both monitoring and improvement programs.”

About CRICO and Candello

The CRICO insurance program insures all of the Harvard medical institutions and their affiliates, providing coverage to 34 hospitals, 17,500 physicians, more than 325 other health care organizations, and in excess of 130,000 other clinicians and employees. For close to 50 years, CRICO has provided industry-leading medical professional liability coverage, claims management, and patient safety resources to its subscribers, and is a recognized leader in evidence-based risk management. Learn more about CRICO.

Candello is a division of CRICO. Through national partnerships, Candello pools malpractice data and expertise from captive and commercial professional liability insurers across the country to provide clinical risk intelligence products and solutions. The data represent one-third of U.S. MPL cases and include open and closed cases as well as cases with and without indemnity payments. An active online community facilitates peer discussion and fosters shared learning, while web-based tools employ Candello’s clinical coding taxonomy to connect the dots from medical error to patient safety interventions. Learn more about Candello.