Quantifying Trends in Florida Hospital Medical Malpractice Claims Using a Mixed Effects Approach

Abstract

This study examines the relative quality of healthcare services delivery in acute care hospitals within the State of Florida. Closed medical malpractice claims were chosen as the primary performance metric due to their standardized reporting requirements. Using a mixed-effect model, we prove that there was a significant yearly downward trend of malpractice claims from 2011 to 2016. And the downward trend after 2011 is significantly stronger than that before 2010. It can be suggested that healthcare quality in acute care hospitals in Florida has significantly improved over the ten years from 2006 through 2016.