Malpractice Claims Made Against VA Are Increasing

The number of malpractice claims filed annually against VA has increased from 678 in fiscal year 1990 to 978 in fiscal year 1994. VA recognizes this and in June 1992 entered into an agreement with AFIP to analyze and assess trends in VA malpractice claims. This report contains an analysis of the 801 medical malpractice claims filed against VA in fiscal year 1993 and is intended to provide VA management with some general characteristics of VA malpractice claims in order to help VA managers identify possible opportunities for improving VA health care delivery. This information assists the center’s risk management and quality assurance personnel in analyzing and assessing trends in malpractice data. AFIP can provide VAMCs with the number of malpractice cases at the facility, the status of a case, the amount of payment, the results of peer review, a determination about whether the patient injury was related to a component of care, and the types of risk management issues that should be addressed. Comparisons can, however, be made of the types of problems that are resulting in malpractice claims against each of these entities. Table 3 shows the areas into which most malpractice claims fall. But, even if the number of malpractice claims filed against VA and the military services could be compared, the numerical data may not be an accurate representation of the extent to which malpractice in fact occurs.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) malpractice claims, focusing on the: (1) total number of malpractice claims filed against VA between fiscal years (FY) 1990 and 1994; (2) way VA manages its malpractice claims; (3) extent to which malpractice experiences are used in VA quality assurance activities; and (4) volume of non-VA health care malpractice claims.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) between FY 1990 and 1994, malpractice claims against VA medical centers (VAMC) increased from 678 to 978 annually and claimants received over $205 million in payments; (2) in 1992, VA entered into an agreement with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) to analyze malpractice claims on a systemwide basis to identify malpractice trends and risk management issues, but VA is not using the information requested from AFIP to address risk management or quality assurance issues; (3) although Department of Defense (DOD) malpractice data can not easily be compared to VA data due to the lack of a standard data collection format, comparisons can be made of the types of problems resulting in malpractice claims against each agency; and (4) DOD malpractice data may help VA identify areas in which malpractice claims are being generated, such as surgery-related incidents.