ArticleClinical practice and cases in emergency medicine2019
Defensive Medicine: A Case and Review of Its Status and Possible Solutions.
Article in Clinical practice and cases in emergency medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adherence to Diagnostic Imaging Pathways for Patients Presenting to Emergency Departments With Undifferentiated Acute Abdominal Pain: Impact on Radiation Exposure and Multiple Imaging Testing.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2026Article
- Malpractice fear and work motivation in anesthesiologists: an occupational self-efficacy perspective.BMC anesthesiology · 2026Article
- The social justice dilemma of liability allocation in medical damage: a qualitative analysis based on case judgments.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Prevalence of defensive medicine behaviors, associated risk factors and its mitigation strategies among physicians in Gaza Strip, palestine: a mixed method study.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- Perceptions and attitudes toward artificial intelligence among frontline physicians and physicians' assistants in Kansas: a cross-sectional survey.JAMIA open · 2024Article
- Policy Options for Reducing Defensive Medicine Behaviors: A Multi-Method Study.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2024Article
- Defensive medicine through the lens of the managerial perspective: a literature review.BMC health services research · 2023Review
- Risk Factors Analysis for Hemoglobin Decline Caused by Diagnostic Blood Collection in Respiratory Department in North China: A Case-Control Study.International journal of general medicine · 2023Article
- The occurrence, types, reasons, and mitigation strategies of defensive medicine among physicians: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- The association between fear of malpractice and burnout among Chinese medical workers: The mediating role of legal consciousness.BMC psychiatry · 2022Article
- The Personal and Professional Impact of Patients' Complaints on Doctors-A Qualitative Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The infinite game in the public healthcare system: don't stop playing.Discover health systems · 2022Article
- Genomic medicine and the "loss of chance" medical malpractice doctrine.HGG advances · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Malpractice liability systems exist, in part, to provide compensation for medical malpractice, corrective justice for those injured by it, and to incentivize quality care by punishing substandard care. Defensive medicine is loosely defined as practice based primarily on the fear of litigation rather than on expected patient outcomes. It is largely motivated by a physician's belief that the malpractice system is unfair, slow, and ineffective; these perceptions make malpractice concerns one of the largest physician stressors. A physician's perception of malpractice rarely correlates with the stringency of their state's tort system, overestimates their own risk, and overestimates the cost of defensive practices. While estimates are difficult to make, defensive medicine likely only accounts for 2.8% of total healthcare expenses. The phrase "tort reform" has been frequently used to suggest fixes to the malpractice system and to defensive practices. Safe harbors, clinical practice guidelines, comparative fault reform, reducing plaintiff attorney fees, and apology laws have each been evaluated as potential remedies to defensive practice, although most are unproven and all must be deployed in a state-by-state approach.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.