How important is the risk of medical malpractice litigations against cardiologists in Belgium?

IF 2.5 4区医学 Q3 CARDIAC & CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS

Acta cardiologica Pub Date : 2025-06-11 DOI:10.1080/00015385.2025.2516943

Nathalie Meyten, Tom G Moreels

{"title":"How important is the risk of medical malpractice litigations against cardiologists in Belgium?","authors":"Nathalie Meyten, Tom G Moreels","doi":"10.1080/00015385.2025.2516943","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Medical malpractice litigations represent an increasing reality for clinical physicians. No malpractice claims data are available on cardiologists in Belgium.Aim: We calculated the number of malpractice claims against cardiologists in Belgium based on the annual reports of the Fund for Medical Accidents (FMA).Methods: FMA annual reports are available online in the public domain from 2012 onwards, and they were reviewed focussing on Cardiology.Results: A total of 6884 applications for malpractice litigations were filed through the FMA, resulting in a final decision for 3185 health providers between 2014 and 2023. In this 10 year period, claims were filed against 73 cardiologists, ranking them in the top 15 specialities at risk for malpractice litigations. There are currently 1237 practicing cardiologists in Belgium, indicating that the cumulative 10 year risk of malpractice litigation through the FMA alone is 6%. This is lower than expected based on data in the literature, showing that missed diagnosis (myocardial infarction) and complications of interventional cardiology procedures represent the most common types of malpractice litigations against cardiologists. Compared to Gastroenterology, another interventional speciality within the field of Internal Medicine, Belgian cardiologists seem less prone to malpractice litigations. A total of 92 claims were filed through the FMA on a total of 777 practicing gastroenterologists (12%; p < 0.001 Chi-square).Conclusions: Based on the FMA annual reports, Belgian cardiologists face only a moderate risk of malpractice litigations reaching 6% over a 10 year time period, as compared to 12% cumulative risk of gastroenterologists.","PeriodicalId":6979,"journal":{"name":"Acta cardiologica","volume":" ","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Acta cardiologica","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00015385.2025.2516943","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CARDIAC & CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Medical malpractice litigations represent an increasing reality for clinical physicians. No malpractice claims data are available on cardiologists in Belgium.

Aim: We calculated the number of malpractice claims against cardiologists in Belgium based on the annual reports of the Fund for Medical Accidents (FMA).

Methods: FMA annual reports are available online in the public domain from 2012 onwards, and they were reviewed focussing on Cardiology.

Results: A total of 6884 applications for malpractice litigations were filed through the FMA, resulting in a final decision for 3185 health providers between 2014 and 2023. In this 10 year period, claims were filed against 73 cardiologists, ranking them in the top 15 specialities at risk for malpractice litigations. There are currently 1237 practicing cardiologists in Belgium, indicating that the cumulative 10 year risk of malpractice litigation through the FMA alone is 6%. This is lower than expected based on data in the literature, showing that missed diagnosis (myocardial infarction) and complications of interventional cardiology procedures represent the most common types of malpractice litigations against cardiologists. Compared to Gastroenterology, another interventional speciality within the field of Internal Medicine, Belgian cardiologists seem less prone to malpractice litigations. A total of 92 claims were filed through the FMA on a total of 777 practicing gastroenterologists (12%; p < 0.001 Chi-square).

Conclusions: Based on the FMA annual reports, Belgian cardiologists face only a moderate risk of malpractice litigations reaching 6% over a 10 year time period, as compared to 12% cumulative risk of gastroenterologists.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在比利时，针对心脏病专家的医疗事故诉讼风险有多重要？

背景：医疗事故诉讼代表了临床医生日益增长的现实。没有关于比利时心脏病专家的医疗事故索赔数据。目的：我们根据医疗事故基金（FMA）的年度报告计算了比利时心脏病专家的医疗事故索赔数量。方法：从2012年起，FMA年度报告可在公共领域在线获取，并对其进行审查，重点是心脏病学。结果：2014年至2023年期间，FMA共提交了6884份医疗事故诉讼申请，对3185名医疗服务提供者做出了最终决定。在这10年里，针对73名心脏病专家提出的索赔，将他们排在医疗事故诉讼风险最高的15个专业之列。目前比利时有1237名执业心脏病专家，这表明仅通过FMA累积的10年医疗事故诉讼风险为6%。这比基于文献数据的预期要低，这表明漏诊（心肌梗死）和介入心脏病学手术的并发症是针对心脏病专家的最常见的医疗事故诉讼类型。与内科领域的另一个介入专业胃肠病学相比，比利时心脏病专家似乎不太容易发生医疗事故诉讼。共有92项索赔通过FMA提交，涉及777名执业胃肠病学家(12%；结论：根据FMA年度报告，比利时心脏病专家面临的医疗事故诉讼风险在10年内仅为6%，而胃肠病学专家的累积风险为12%。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Acta cardiologica 医学-心血管系统

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

12.50%

发文量

115

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Acta Cardiologica is an international journal. It publishes bi-monthly original, peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of cardiovascular disease including observational studies, clinical trials, experimental investigations with clear clinical relevance and tutorials.