Hysterectomy: a medical-legal perspective, 1975 to 1985.

Since 1975 the crisis in professional liability has been the most important problem affecting the future of obstetrics and gynecology. Increasing numbers of physicians have stopped delivering babies and most obstetricians have decreased their high-risk obstetrics. Most of the attention in the specialty has been directed toward the liability problem in obstetrics as opposed to gynecology. The liability problem in gynecology is not insignificant, however, and has increased in importance in the last several years. This is particularly true in the areas of failure to diagnose and complications of surgery. This study reports on the closed cases involving hysterectomy from Norcal Mutual Insurance Company, a physician-owned mutual company founded in Northern California in 1975. A number of factors are analyzed in comparing those cases involving payment of money because of a settlement or loss at trial with those cases in which no money was paid.