Subscribe to receive a new closed claim study directly to your inbox once a month. These closed claim studies are provided to help physicians improve patient safety and reduce potential liability risks that may arise when treating patients. They illustrate how actions or inactions by physicians led to allegations of medical liability and how risk management techniques may have either prevented the outcome or increased the physician's defensibility. The ultimate goal in publishing these studies is to help physicians and other health care professionals practice safe medicine.
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A 16-year-old boy came with his mother to an appointment at a dermatology practice. At the request of the mother, a PA wrote a prescription for a compound scar gel containing a steroid.

A 40-year-old man came to his family physician with complaints of left shoulder pain for two weeks. The physician ordered an MRI and administered an injection of methylprednisolone and lidocaine.

On June 25, a 35-year-old man came to an emergency department (ED) reporting right lower abdominal pain following exercise.

A 35-year-old woman went to an obstetrics/gynecology practice for confirmation of pregnancy and prenatal care. She had a history of three prior pregnancies, with two ending in miscarriage.

A 72-year-old woman with a history of diabetes went to the emergency department due to pain in her left eye. The ED physician suspected orbital cellulitis, but CBC and CT scans were normal.

On December 24, a 64-year-old man fell from a ladder and injured his left forearm. He came to the emergency department. An x-ray showed a displaced and complete fracture of radial and ulnar shafts.
On July 13 at 12:45 a.m., a 48-year-old man was brought to a hospital emergency department (ED) by air ambulance.

On May 1, 2013, a 69-year-old man came to the ED with worsening shortness of breath. The patient’s history included smoking, COPD, and an occluded right coronary artery.

On Dec. 15 at 10:23 a.m., a 12-year-old boy with a history of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus came to an ED with sore throat, cough, abdominal pain, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

On June 2, a 61-year-old man came to the emergency department (ED) of a large hospital. He reported recurring, right-sided, lower abdominal pain for two days. He rated the pain as a 9 out of 10.

A 58-year-old woman came to an orthopedic surgeon reporting unrelenting back pain and radiculopathy into her right leg. The patient described the pain as 10 out of 10.

On January 10, a 35-year-old man was transported by ambulance to a hospital’s emergency department (ED) reporting headache and dizziness. The patient had a history of hypertension and hypothyroidism.

The hospital received an email invoice from the ED group with instructions to send payment to a new account.

A 58-year-old man came to Neurosurgeon A for treatment of neck pain with radiation to his arms. The patient had a history of hypertension and diabetes.
A 41-year-old man came to the emergency room on August 21 with severe abdominal pain for 5 days, vomiting, nausea, and inability to eat.
A 70-year-old woman with a history of diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension was taken to Hospital A, due to severe aortic stenosis.
An 89-year-old woman suffered a fractured right femur requiring surgical repair. She had a complicated history and comorbidities.
In 2007, a 65-year-old man began seeing Family Physician A for treatment of high cholesterol and bronchitis. Over the next two years, the patient was seen for routine care.
In November 2007, a 40-year-old man was referred to an internal medicine physician by his primary care physician. The patient reported feeling weak and tired.
A 77-year-old woman with a history of cigarette smoking and COPD came to her family physician reporting a lump in her right breast.