Male Physicians Higher Rates of Malpractice Claims Than Women, Yet They Are Paid More: Report

Female doctors generally earn significantly less than male doctors over the course of their careers, but new research suggests women physicians are actually less prone to medical mistake lawsuits.

Although the number of female doctors has increased in relation to male doctors in recent years, new research suggests that women physicians are still less likely to experience medical malpractice lawsuits than their male counterparts.

A number of prior studies have already highlighted that litigation is less common against female doctors than against male doctors. However, it has remained unclear why women see less malpractice lawsuits, and whether it may be due to gender differences or some other factor, such as a lower number of women practicing medicine.

In a report published in Sage Journals on September 10, researchers from the University of California San Francisco indicate that even after adjusting for the number of physicians from each gender and the hours worked, male physicians still experience a greater number of malpractice claims, and the costs associated with resolving the mistakes is greater than what is seen with women doctors.

In the study, a team of researchers led by Dr. Kiran Gupta used data from 2011 through 2020, which was provided by physician-owned insurer The Doctors Company, to examine differences in claim frequencies between genders, as well as specialties. Even if a claim was closed without an indemnity payment, it still counted in the total frequency analysis.

Of the 57,665 physicians included in the data set, 40,621 were male. However, after adjusting for the number of claims in proportion to hours worked per week, female doctors still experienced less total claims and losses than their male counterparts.

General surgeons, obstetricians and OB/GYNs were the most likely to face malpractice lawsuits during the reporting period. However, the order in which these three types of specialists rank for the number of malpractice lawsuits also varied by gender, with general surgeons being the most likely male specialist to experience a malpractice lawsuit, and obstetricians being the most likely female specialist. Previous research has indicated that the majority of specialists have been involved in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Further Research Could Lead to Better Clinical Practices

The study suggests that there may be several factors that cause women doctors to experience less medical malpractice claims. The researchers indicate that female doctors generally spend more time counseling patients, and adhere to better evidence-based guidelines. They are also usually more patient-centric, responding to messages quicker, spending more time reviewing records and communicating more effectively.

However, Dr. Gupta and her team acknowledged that further analysis is required to determine precisely why female doctors see a lower number of malpractice claims than male doctors.

The results of this research may also assist in closing the wage gap between male and female doctors, Dr. Gupta indicated, pointing out that male and female doctors pay the same premiums for malpractice insurance, which could contribute to the gender wage-gap issue, despite women seeing less losses from malpractice lawsuits.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) reported in 2021 that female physicians can earn as much as $2 million less than male physicians over the course of their career.

“In light of the increasing number of women matriculating into medical school and practicing in specialties in which they were previously very underrepresented, it is important to consider why women may be sued less often,” Dr. Gupta said. “We suggest that further research is needed to better understand the differences in clinical practice associated with provider gender in order to inform the overall improvement of clinical practice.”