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United States Medical Negligence Data
Healthcare Insurance & Costs
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About
This dataset provides valuable insights into medical malpractice claims within the United States, focusing on claim payment amounts and details concerning physicians and lawsuits. It addresses the substantial financial impact of medical malpractice, which costs the US healthcare system billions annually and contributes to elevated medical malpractice insurance premiums. The data offers a window into the legal and financial aspects of these claims, representing the last 79,210 payments made. It is a critical resource for understanding the scale and characteristics of medical malpractice.
Columns
- Amount: The financial sum of the claim payment, expressed in US dollars. Values range from 1,576 to 926,000, with a mean of 157,000.
- Severity: A rating indicating the extent of damage to the patient, on a scale from 1 (emotional trauma) to 9 (death). The mean severity rating is 4.8.
- Age: The age of the claimant in years, ranging from 0 to 87, with an average age of 42.7.
- Private Attorney: A binary indicator (0 or 1) specifying whether the claimant was represented by a private attorney, where 0 denotes 'Not Private' and 1 denotes 'Private'.
- Marital Status: The marital status of the claimant, categorised as 0 (Divorced), 1 (Single), 2 (Married), 3 (Widowed), or 4 (Unknown).
- Specialty: The medical specialty of the physician involved in the lawsuit, with examples including Family Practice, General Surgery, and a significant 'Other' category.
- Insurance: The type of medical insurance held by the patient, such as Private, Unknown, or Other.
- Gender: The patient's gender, primarily categorised as Female or Male.
Distribution
This dataset is typically provided in a CSV format. It is a structured collection containing 79,210 records (rows) across 8 distinct columns. The file size is 3.8 MB. All columns exhibit complete data, with 100% valid entries and no missing or mismatched records, ensuring high data quality.
Usage
This dataset is ideally suited for:
- Analysing the financial implications and trends of medical malpractice claims in the US.
- Investigating correlations between claim amounts, patient damage severity, and claimant demographics.
- Examining the involvement of different physician specialties in malpractice lawsuits.
- Informing risk assessment and premium calculations for medical malpractice insurance providers.
- Supporting academic research into healthcare policy, legal outcomes, and public health economics.
Coverage
- Geographic: The data pertains to medical malpractice claims within the United States.
- Time Range: The dataset contains information about the last 79,210 claim payments made. While studies mentioned cover periods like 1991-2005 for physician claims, the specific time frame for these 79,210 payments is not explicitly stated.
- Demographic: Includes claimant's age (0-87 years), marital status (Divorced, Single, Married, Widowed, Unknown), and gender (Female, Male). It also covers physician specialties.
License
CC0: Public Domain
Who Can Use It
- Insurance Actuaries and Underwriters: To refine models for risk assessment and setting insurance premiums.
- Healthcare Policy Analysts: To understand the economic burden of malpractice and inform regulatory decisions.
- Legal Researchers and Attorneys: For studying lawsuit patterns, outcomes, and factors influencing claim success.
- Medical Professionals and Organisations: To identify high-risk areas and improve patient safety protocols.
- Academics and Data Scientists: For statistical analysis, predictive modelling, and in-depth research into healthcare law and economics.
Dataset Name Suggestions
- US Medical Malpractice Payouts
- Medical Lawsuit Claims Data (US)
- Physician Malpractice Insurance Claims
- United States Medical Negligence Data
Attributes
Original Data Source: United States Medical Negligence Data
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