News
Frequency and Nature of Communication and Handoff Failures in Medical Malpractice Claims
Mar 01, 2022
By examining claims data the researchers were able to identify the frequency of communication errors as well as what type of error occurred. They found that claims featuring communication errors were also less likely to be dropped, denied, or dismissed than claims without these errors. Their findings indicate that communications errors are a significant cause of malpractice claims and pose a financial burden on the health care system.
Citation for the Full-text Article
Humphrey KE, Sundberg M, Milliren CE, Graham DA, Landrigan CP. Frequency and nature of communication and handoff failures in medical malpractice claims. Journal of Patient Safety. 2022;18(2):130-137. doi:10.1097/PTS.0000000000000937
Related Article
- Journal of Patient Safety Study Shows I-PASS Can Significantly Decrease Likelihood and Cost of Malpractice Claims
- Improving Patient Handoffs Helps Reduce Malpractice Claims
Latest News from CRICO
Get all your medmal and patient safety news here.
Effects of Poor Communication in Healthcare
News
Exploring the effects of poor communication in health care, this HIPAA Journal article, published December 23, 2023, cites data from CRICO’s med mal database.
Assessing the Impact of Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions on Safety Culture with Proactive Risk Assessments
News
Hospitals seeking to understand patient safety strengths and vulnerabilities in the context of mergers/acquisitions benefit more from a third-party perspective than from a limited internal process. CRICO’s Risk Assessment Unit has access to a rich body of work to help articulate identified factors and by which to frame improvement recommendations.

Postpartum Malpractice Claims: Can We Understand Preventable Harms and Socioeconomic Factors?
News
Candello Member
In a multifactorial study, The Doctors Company (a Candello member organization) investigated postpartum claims to develop clinical recommendations to decrease the risks of postpartum morbidity and mortality.
How Does Work Environment Relate to Diagnostic Quality? A Prospective, Mixed Methods Study in Primary Care
News
CRICO Grants
The aim of this CRICO-funded study was to develop a tool assessing key elements of the diagnostic assessment process and apply it to a series of diagnostic encounters examining clinical notes and the encounters’ recorded transcripts.