Plastic surgery practices that take part in insurance carrier-provided malpractice training courses and offer procedure-specific patient education brochures are less likely to be sued for medical malpractice, according to a recent study published in Aesthetic Surgery (July 2018).
Piper Boyll, BsC, of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, et al, emailed a prospective multiple choice questionnaire to all members of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) to evaluate attitudes and practices of informed consent in relation to medical malpractice. After reviewing the 129 returned questionnaires that were eligible for analysis, the researchers determined that surgeons who provided procedure-specific brochures to their patients were significantly less likely to be sued for medical malpractice than those who did not, as were surgeons who participated in malpractice carrier-required courses on avoiding medical malpractice litigation.
Image copyright Getty Images