The effectiveness of physician risk management: Potential problems for patient safety

Physician risk management (RM) has been mandated around the world in an effort to reduce pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss associated with avoidable patient injury. However, there has been little empirical RM assessment to determine whether physicians obtain an increased understanding of the law, clinical obligations defined by law, and reduced numbers of injury suits. Here, 210 US primary care physicians were sent a survey requesting demographic information on RM activities, the definition of negligence, and evaluation of ten patient injury jury verdict case scenarios; 138 physicians responded. Although physicians participated in a broad array of RM activities, none were positively associated with overall concordance with case verdicts; indeed, substantive self-study and RM seminar attendance