Responsabilidad profesional médica en la asistencia urgente de especialistas en medicina familiar y comunitaria

Introduction

Urgent assistance in primary care is a key area of the health system, being as an important stressor to be claimed for professional liability. The objective was to analyze the professional liability in primary care emergencies of specialists of family and community medicine and their main characteristics in our environment.

Methods

Retrospective descriptive analysis of claims against General Practitioners between 1986 to 2015 was performed.

Results

224 claims, all resolved, were analyzed, due to error or diagnostic delay (122-54.5%), accessibility problems in medical care (48-21.4%), treatment errors (29-12.9%) and errors in the issuance of documents (25-11.1%). In 147 (65.6%) it was urgent assistance and in 77 (34.3%) scheduled. The way of interposition was judicial in 71.4%. In 6 cases (2.6%) the resolution involved compensation in 3 cases of urgent assistance and 3 of scheduled.

Conclusion

The very low risk of claim and compensation payment is confirmed, with no differences found between urgent and scheduled assistance. Clinical safety aspects should be emphasized, especially in the diagnostic error.