Correlation Between Malpractice Litigation and Legislation Reform in Taiwan Over a 30-Year Period

Figures & data

Table 1 Types of Medical Dispute Litigation and Rates of Annual Medical Litigation

Year	Criminal Litigations	Criminal (%)	Civil Litigations	Civil (%)	Medical Litigations	Others	Total	Total Population	The Medical Litigation Rates (Per Million People)
1987	128	97	4	3	132	13	145	19,725,010	6.69
1988	129	92.8	10	7.2	139	24	163	19,954,397	6.97
1989	130	95.6	6	4.4	136	14	150	20,156,587	6.75
1990	117	94.4	7	5.6	124	3	127	20,401,305	6.08
1991	114	95.8	5	4.2	119	9	128	20,605,831	5.78
1992	132	93	10	7	142	23	165	20,802,622	6.83
1993	100	87	15	13	115	25	140	20,995,416	5.48
1994	102	67.5	49	32.5	151	40	191	21,177,874	7.13
1995	117	77	35	23	152	42	194	21,357,431	7.12
1996	190	90.9	19	9.1	209	25	234	21,525,433	9.71
1997	223	90.3	24	9.7	247	13	260	21,742,815	11.36
1998	235	86.4	37	13.6	272	15	287	21,928,591	12.40
1999	258	84.9	46	15.1	304	28	332	22,092,387	13.76
2000	307	87.7	43	12.3	350	33	383	22,276,672	15.71
2001	280	83.8	54	16.2	334	32	366	22,405,568	14.91
2002	366	83.8	71	16.2	437	19	456	22,520,776	19.4
2003	402	88.5	52	11.5	454	11	465	22,604,550	20.08
2004	370	83.9	71	16.1	441	9	450	22,689,122	19.44
2005	296	79.4	77	20.6	373	3	376	22,770,383	16.38
2006	331	80.5	80	19.5	411	7	418	22,876,527	17.97
2007	354	80.3	87	19.7	441	3	444	22,958,360	19.21
2008	367	78.3	102	21.7	469	3	472	23,037,031	20.36
2009	414	74.9	139	25.1	553	3	556	23,119,772	23.92
2010	398	80.4	97	19.6	495	1	496	23,162,123	21.37
2011	443	75.5	144	24.5	587	1	588	23,224,912	25.27
2012	462	74.3	160	25.7	622	1	623	23,315,822	26.68
2013	403	81.7	90	18.3	493	3	496	23,373,517	21.09
2014	391	80.5	95	19.5	486	1	487	23,433,753	20.74
2015	355	75.5	115	24.5	470	4	474	23,492,074	20.01
2016	244	70.7	101	29.3	345	6	351	23,539,816	14.66
2017	222	64	125	36	347	7	354	23,571,227	14.72
2018	245	63.3	142	36.7	387	4	391	23,588,932	16.41
Average		82.5		17.5					14.82

Figure 1 Number of Criminal and Civil Litigation Cases in Medical Disputes. The type of medical dispute litigation can mainly be divided into civil and criminal claims. The number of criminal litigation cases was higher than that of civil litigation cases.

Figure 2 Trend in annual medical litigation rate. This figure displays the trend in the annual medical litigation rate (per million people) from 1987 to 2018.

Table 2 Results of Medical Review Committee Reports

Year	Negligence	Possible Negligence	“Negligence” and “Possible Negligence”	“Negligence” and “Possible Negligence” (%)	No Negligence	No Negligence (%)	Unable to Identify	Not a Medical Dispute	Others	Total
1987	8	12	20	13.8	112	77.2	0	0	13	145
1988	14	12	26	16.0	104	63.8	1	2	30	163
1989	7	11	18	12	106	70.7	2	0	24	150
1990	16	13	29	22.8	74	58.3	7	0	17	127
1991	6	18	24	18.8	71	55.5	1	1	31	128
1992	21	21	42	25.5	83	50.3	6	0	34	165
1993	27	10	37	26.4	60	42.9	4	0	39	140
1994	34	3	37	19.4	114	59.7	15	10	15	191
1995	24	6	30	15.5	111	57.2	24	12	17	194
1996	52	15	67	28.6	125	53.4	22	9	11	234
1997	40	17	57	21.9	141	54.2	27	30	5	260
1998	43	15	58	20.2	183	63.8	22	18	6	287
1999	59	9	68	20.5	205	61.7	26	31	2	332
2000	40	27	67	17.5	244	63.7	30	33	9	383
2001	24	16	40	10.9	271	74.0	17	30	8	366
2002	37	33	70	15.4	316	69.3	30	34	6	456
2003	34	27	61	13.1	332	71.4	33	15	24	465
Before Medical Care Act (2004 Reform)			751 (22.1%)		2652 (77.9%)		1 [Reference]
2004	25	36	61	13.6	318	70.7	24	26	21	450
2005	28	35	63	16.8	246	65.4	42	9	16	376
2006	54	33	87	20.8	265	63.4	43	10	13	418
2007	68	10	78	17.6	294	66.2	45	17	10	444
2008	59	17	76	16.1	323	68.4	43	17	13	472
2009	65	35	100	18.0	365	65.6	46	29	16	556
2010	37	53	90	18.1	358	72.2	24	12	12	496
2011	28	26	54	9.2	454	77.2	46	24	10	588
2004~2012			609 (18.8%)		2623 (81.2%)		Odds Ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.727–0.924 (P=0.001)
2012	18	17	35	5.6	511	82.0	39	21	17	623
2013	21	8	29	5.8	429	86.5	27	5	6	496
2014	20	12	32	6.6	394	80.9	35	14	12	487
2015	13	9	22	4.6	403	85.0	30	15	4	474
2016	12	13	25	7.1	287	81.8	21	7	11	351
2017	9	4	13	3.7	315	89.0	18	2	6	354
2018	23	3	26	6.6	310	79.3	13	1	41*	391
After ADR introduced (2012)			182 (6.4%)		2649 (93.6%)		Odds Ratio, 0.243; 95% CI, 0.205–0.288 (p<0.001)
Average				15.3		68.1

Notes: Data were derived from the official Medical Review Committee of Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan. *Includes 38 medical appraisal cases not yet completed.

Figure 3 Results of medical appraisal. The number of “no-fault” cases was higher than that of “negligence” and “possible negligence” cases.