Surgery is the specialty with the highest malpractice lawsuit frequency, while psychiatry has the lowest, a Medscape report found.
The report, "Is Your Risk of Being Sued Climbing? Physicians and Malpractice Report 2023," comes from a survey of 3,037 physicians in 29 specialties between May and July. The survey found the most common allegations for malpractice suits were failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis (35%), complications from treatment or surgery (27%), and failure to treat or delayed treatment (22%).
Here are 22 specialties ranked by frequency of malpractice suits:
Surgery, general: 90%
OB-GYN: 85%
Orthopedics: 82%
Plastic surgery: 73%
Otolaryngology: 72%
Radiology: 72%
Urology: 72%
Emergency medicine: 71%
Critical care: 66%
Cardiology: 64%
Gastroenterology: 64%
Neurology: 59%
Anesthesiology: 57%
Infectious disease: 50%
Ophthalmology: 49%
Oncology: 47%
Internal medicine: 46%
Family medicine: 45%
Physical medicine and rehabilitation: 45%
Pathology: 44%
Pediatrics: 43%
Psychiatry: 30%