Reducing the Risks of Pediatric Pneumonia

Pediatric pneumonia accounts for 5% of medical malpractice claims among pediatricians insured by MagMutual. Pneumonia causes significant morbidity in children and remains one of the most common serious infections of childhood. Pneumonia can occur at any age, but is more common in younger children, accounting for 13% of all infectious illnesses in infants younger than 2 years of age.¹

To help pediatricians reduce that number, MagMutual’s medical faculty and risk consultants have analyzed our claims data, determined the main causes of claims related to pneumonia and developed strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Top Risks

The main causes of claims related to pediatric pneumonia are:

• Patient monitoring problems
• Medication errors

Top Strategies for Reduction

Based on these top risk drivers, implementing the following clinical and operational strategies can help you prevent unexpected outcomes and increase defensibility of a medical malpractice claim:

Clinical strategies

• Consider pneumonia in any child with fever over 72 hours, with elevated respiratory rate and/or oxygen saturation below 95%.
• Don’t exclude diagnosis based on a normal lung exam or a positive viral test, especially in children 2 years old or younger.
• Consider initiating empiric antibiotic coverage and obtaining a chest X-ray when the diagnosis is suspected.

Operational strategies

• Document vital signs, including pulse oximetry, general appearance and physical exam and, especially, a detailed lung exam. Document interpretation of any abnormal vital signs and physical exam findings, as well as any laboratory or radiographic evaluations.

Other Top Risks

Though pneumonia accounts for a sizable portion of claims among pediatricians according to our data, we’ve identified several other drivers of loss based on claims frequency:

Risk Drivers by Frequency

Data Collection & Methodology

Data is based on MagMutual closed claims from 2011-2021 and corresponding exposure data. Clinical and non-clinical loss drivers are based on an in-depth review of each claim by a medical professional or clinical risk consultant. Risk reduction strategies are based on input from practicing physicians.

_{[1] https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/967822-overview#:~:text=United%20States%20statistics,than%202%20years%20of%20age.}