medical malpractice cases in kerman province, iran (2010 - 2014)

Background: medical malpractice is a major cause of patient complaints and dissatisfaction, which is an alarming event for healthcare professional and medical practitioners. objectives: the present study aimed to investigate medical malpractice cases in kerman province, iran. methods: this cross-sectional, retrospective study was performed to analyze the complaint cases reported in kerman medical council and kerman legal medicine organization during 2010 - 2014. physician data were recorded on age, gender, academic degree, specialty, work experience, place of failure, and type of medical malpractice. data analysis was performed in spss. results: in total, 551 complaint cases were investigated, 167 of which (31%) were medical malpractice cases. the most common medical malpractices were imprudence (44.31%) and carelessness (41.31%). in addition, most of the medical malpractice cases occurred in governmental hospitals (64.07%). in most of the cases, physicians with specialty degrees were convicted of medical malpractice (73.65%), and the highest number of the medical malpractices was observed in ophthalmology (20.95%).conclusions: despite the significant advancement in medical affairs, the rate of patient complaints and medical malpractices has increased noticeably.