Medical arbitration and claims for malpractice related to health service users under 15 years of age during 2011-2015

Background: Claims by health services users are a negative indicator of the care quality. To know the situations that originate them, and their consequences are key issues to consider in order to design strategies to improve the quality of health services. This study analyses the cases submitted to the National Medical Arbitration Commission with a final arbitration decision during the period 2011-2015, related to health service users younger than 15 years old. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study. We analyzed information extracted from the reports with a final arbitration decision in the last 5 years, selecting those where the affected users were younger than 15 years old. Resultados: Se detectaron 40 laudos, la mayoria involucrados con servicios de pediatria, encontrandose una distribucion homogenea por edad y sexo. Los porcentajes mas altos se encontraron en las edades extremas de la poblacion estudiada: menores de 1 ano (32%) y de 10 a 14 anos (30%). La principal causa de la queja fueron los problemas con los auxiliares de diagnostico (45%). Se detecto un promedio de 8.7 eventos adversos por caso, la mayoria relacionados con procedimientos. Entre los danos destacan 12 defunciones y 9 discapacidades permanentes. Se encontro evidencia de mala practica en el 65% de los casos y hubo una sentencia condenatoria en el 60% de los laudos. Conclusions: This manuscript shows information in four main sections: sociodemographic characteristics, description of medical care, adverse events and their repercussions on health damages, evaluation of the medical act and conclusions of the arbitration process.