Health Education England North West, Otolaryngology Department, Tameside General Hospital, Fountain Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, OL6 9RW, UK.
Health Education England North West, Plastic Surgery Department, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Road, Manchester, M23 9LT, UK.
Surgeon. 2020 Apr;18(2):75-79. doi: 10.1016/j.surge.2019.06.001. Epub 2019 Jul 20.
Litigation in healthcare is a large financial burden to the NHS and can be a cause of great stress to clinicians. The overall number of claims across specialities, from the years 1995-2017 have increased. Despite being one of the smaller surgical specialities, litigation costs are still significant within Otolaryngology. In this piece we sought to analyse the available data to identify trends within litigation and therefore which areas of practise could be improved.
A freedom of information request was submitted to NHS Resolution for summarised data on claims coded under 'Otolaryngology' or 'ENT' between 1996 and 2017. Information was collected on the total number of claims, the number of successful claims and details on the reasons for making claims.
The total number of claims made against Otolaryngology departments from 1996/97 to 2016/17 was 1952. The overall number of claims have increased during this time period. The total amount of money paid out between 1996 and 2017 was £108, 240, 323. The top causes of claim by injury were unnecessary pain and unnecessary operations. The highest number of claims by cause were for failure or delay in diagnosis and intraoperative problems.
These results highlight areas that local units can focus on to reduce their litigation burden. Targeted initiatives aimed at improving patient-clinician communication, the consent process and improving local organisational efficiency will address a significant proportion of claims. Re-examination of this data on a regular basis can serve as a useful adjunct in assessing the impact of quality improvement initiatives and implementation of best practiseswithin the speciality.
医疗保健领域的诉讼给国民保健制度带来了巨大的财务负担，也可能给临床医生带来巨大的压力。从 1995 年到 2017 年，各专业的索赔总数有所增加。尽管耳鼻喉科是较小的外科专业之一，但诉讼成本在耳鼻喉科仍然很高。在这篇文章中，我们试图分析可用数据，以确定诉讼中的趋势，从而改进实践领域。
向 NHS Resolution 提交了一份信息自由请求，要求提供 1996 年至 2017 年期间编码为“耳鼻喉科”或“ENT”的索赔汇总数据。收集的信息包括索赔总数、成功索赔数以及提出索赔的原因细节。
1996/97 至 2016/17 年期间，针对耳鼻喉科部门的索赔总数为 1952 件。在此期间，索赔总数有所增加。1996 年至 2017 年期间支付的总金额为 108,240,323 英镑。因受伤而提出的索赔主要原因是不必要的疼痛和不必要的手术。因病因提出的最高索赔数量是诊断失误或延迟以及术中问题。
这些结果突出了当地单位可以关注的领域，以减轻其诉讼负担。针对改善医患沟通、同意程序和提高当地组织效率的有针对性的举措，将解决很大一部分索赔。定期重新审查这些数据可以作为评估质量改进举措的影响和实施该专业最佳实践的有用辅助手段。
