Study Shows Mediation Reduces Hospital Professional Liability Insurance Claims

Any lawsuit can be a long drawn out process for both plaintiffs and defendants in a case. As a result many professionals will leave their case up to the lawyers to fight out so they can continue with their busy schedule. When it comes to hospital professional liability insurance, the employees of a clinic may be required to be at work except to give their testimony about the case to the court. However, the results of a study published in October 2010's edition of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law reported that mediation with the professionals involved could provide the best solution financially, as well as emotionally.

Less Time For Preparation Needed By Lawyers

A significant result that the study showed was that mediation requires much less preparation by lawyers, reducing the expense paid out to fight the case. In the study that was conducted on 31 cases from 2006 to 2007, the lawyers spent an average of 6 hours preparing for the process. This is compared to the hours and days that are spent getting ready for trial. The amount of money saved in lawyer fees alone merits a second look from hospitals and physicians. Through the process in the 31 cases analyzed, the results showed an average of $250,000 that was paid per case with the highest settlement being $1.7 million dollars. The numbers are far less than the millions that are paid in typical malpractice trials. With this kind of results, companies will want to consider this avenue with other lawsuits including employment practices liability insurance claims.

Patients Point To Communication Breakdown

The study further reported that none of the physicians were in attendance at the mediation hearings. However, approximately 80% of the plaintiffs were in attendance for the hearing. Some of the plaintiffs noted that there were communication breakdowns prior to the pursuit of litigation between them and the physician. Although the physicians were not in attendance, a representative for the hospital or insurer was present in about two-thirds of the cases. Out those representatives, only 1 in every 5 used the case to determine better practices for their hospital or clinic. One cannot help but wonder how much time, money and how many lives could be saved through the involvement of both physicians and hospitals to learn from the mistakes that have happened.

Effective Mediation Requires All Parties To Be Involved

In order for mediation to be an effective tool in reducing hospital professional liability insurance claims, active participation from the patients, physicians, and hospital staff needs to take place. A law school professor stated that any information that is given by the patient to determine what went wrong in the case can be used the physician and hospital to produce better practices, and create policies to prevent the same situation from happening again. Over time the effort could reduce the cost of hospital professional liability insurance, medical costs for patients across the country and much more. When factored into other situations including employment practices liability insurance claims, mediation may be the solution to providing better healthcare at a lower cost.