General Surgery Risk Review Launched

Napa, California-May 1, 2026-The Doctors Company, the nation's largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, today released "General Surgery Claims: May Malpractice Risk Review," the newest edition in a monthly series of specialty-focused analyses designed to support patient safety and clinical risk management.

Each month in 2026, The Doctors Company will explore malpractice risk trends in a different medical specialty, offering evidence-based insights drawn from real claims data to help clinicians and healthcare leaders better understand how patient harm occurs and why negligence allegations arise.

"General Surgery: May Malpractice Risk Review," available at thedoctors.com/GeneralSurgeryMRR, brings together three in-depth analyses:

• Contributing factors to patient harm: Identifies common drivers of general surgery malpractice claims, including issues with technical skill, clinical judgment, and communication.
• Negligence allegations: Analyzes negligence allegations in general surgery to help clinicians and staff proactively identify and address risk.
• Case summary for delayed recognition and management of postoperative complications: Highlights the patient safety risks associated with delayed recognition and escalation of complications following colorectal surgery and underscores the importance of correct identification of abdominal anatomy, monitoring expected recovery milestones, and clear perioperative documentation.

"Malpractice claims provide a powerful lens into how and why patient harm occurs," said Julie Ritzman, MBA, CPHRM, Senior Vice President, Patient Safety and Risk Management, The Doctors Company, part of TDC Group. "By analyzing general surgery claims, we can reveal patterns that often go unnoticed. These insights help surgeons to enhance communication, refine decision-making, and improve care processes-ultimately supporting safer, higher-quality care for every patient."

About The Doctors Company
Founded and led by physicians, The Doctors Company (thedoctors.com) is relentlessly committed to advancing, protecting, and rewarding the practice of good medicine. The Doctors Company helps hospitals and practices of all sizes manage the complexities of today's healthcare environment-with expert guidance, resources, and coverage-and is the only medical malpractice insurer with an advocacy program covering all 50 states and the federal level. The Doctors Company is part of TDC Group (tdcg.com), the nation's largest physician-owned provider of insurance and risk management solutions. TDC Group serves the full continuum of care, from individual physicians to academic medical systems-over 120,000 healthcare professionals and organizations nationwide. To learn more about our data-driven insights and to stay up to date on industry trends, follow and subscribe to The Doctors Company on X (@doctorscompany), YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Copyrighted by and used with permission of Candello a division of The Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions Incorporated, all rights reserved.