Practice of defensive medicine among surgeons in Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Defensive medicine is physicians' deviation from standard medical care which is primarily intended either to reduce or avoid medico legal litigation. Although the Federal Ethics Committee review in Ethiopia has shown that applications for medical/surgical error investigation claims are increasing at an alarming rate, there is no study to date done to estimate the degree of defensive practice done by the physicians with an intention of avoiding this increasing legal claim. This study assessed the practice of defensive medicine among highly litigious disciplines (surgery) and described factors associated with its practice.

Methods

Cross sectional quantitative study using online survey questionnaires was conducted to assess the degree of defensive practice and six fa

SUBMITTER: Assefa EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10634131 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature