Medical Malpractice of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the Complaint Records Referred to the Forensic Medicine Commission of Tehran Province during 2015-2017

Obstetricians and gynecologists are at the top of medical malpractice complaints. Medical malpractice in this regard can lead to consequences such as neonatal and fetal deaths, maternal defects, maternal deaths and neonatal defects. The aim of this study was to investigate the medical malpractice of obstetricians and gynecologists in the complaint records referred to the forensic medicine commission of Tehran Province during 2015-2017.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 366 complaint files of obstetricians and gynecologists who were referred to the Forensic Medicine Commission of Tehran Province during 2015-2017, and data on patient and physician characteristics, type of injury, cause and effect of complaint were extracted. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22 software and Chi-square test.

Of the 366 cases studied, 90.7% of the physicians were women, and faculty members had less complaints than other physicians. But there was no significant difference between male and female physicians and with different degrees of science in terms of the types of medical malpractice and injury that led to complaints (p>0.05). 68.1% of complaints were related to patients who referred to governmental hospitals for treatment and there was a significant relationship between type of malpractice and place of treatment (p<0.05).

The most common cause of gynecological medical malpractice is negligence. There was no relationship between demographic characteristics of physicians, including age, sex, degree, and work experience with the type of medical malpractice with respect to the forensic results and the type of injury to the patient.