7 ways to avoid a malpractice case before it starts

Physicians do not get sued only because something went wrong clinically. Many malpractice cases start with a chain of small breakdowns: a missed follow-up, an unclear handoff, a chart that does not explain the thinking or a patient who feels brushed off. Risk managers often say the goal is not “never have an adverse outcome,” but “make it hard for a preventable process failure to turn into harm, and make it harder still for harm to turn into a lawsuit.”

Here are seven practical, systems-minded ways practice leaders can lower malpractice risk in primary care and specialty clinics, without turning every visit into defensive medicine.