DISTRIBUTION OF ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS, LAWYERS, AND MALPRACTICE CLAIMS IN NEW-YORK

The New York State Department of Health Medical Malpractice Insurance Database was used to determine the number and location of malpractice claims filed by residents of New York State against board certified or thopaedic surgeons between 1979 and 1993, The numbers of board certifi ed orthopaedic surgeons, lawyers, law firms doing medical malpractice work, and malpractice claims per capita for each county were calculate d, Stepwise linear regression analysis was used to determine whether t he per capita rate of malpractice claims was predicted by the populati on density of board certified orthopaedic surgeons, law firms filing m alpractice claims, or total population of lawyers, Three thousand one hundred eighty-two malpractice claims were filed during the period of interest. The per capita rate of malpractice claims did not correlate with the population density of board certified orthopaedic surgeons, T he per capita malpractice claim rate, however, was significantly corre lated with the population density of law firms filing malpractice clai ms and with the overall population density of lawyers, Orthopaedic pra ctices located in areas with high concentrations of lawyers involved i n medical malpractice litigation appear to have a higher risk of havin g malpractice claims filed against them than practices located in othe r areas.