Florida has one of the worst rates of medical malpractice reports in America.
High Rise Financial, a legal funding company, in a study published this month found Florida had the fourth worst rate of cases of medical malpractice reports in the country. New Mexico topped the list, followed by New York in second and Pennsylvania in third.
Researchers developed the study by looking at the National Practitioner Data Bank figures between 2022 and 2026. There were a total of 61,199 medical practitioners in Florida in that four-year span and a total of 5,078 medical practice reports in that time.
That comes out to 83 malpractice reports for every 1,000 medical practitioners, putting Florida in the fourth spot. New Mexico’s rate was 115.7 malpractice reports for every 1,000 practitioners at the top slot. But Florida’s rate is woefully high compared to some of the states rated the most safe for medical procedures.
The study found North Dakota was ranked 50th in the county with only 31 reports in the four-year time frame and only 11.3 malpractice reports for every 1,000 practitioners.
“The comparison highlights the significant differences in malpractice reporting rates across the country and reinforces Florida’s position among the states with the highest concentration of malpractice reports,” the study concluded.
While Florida’s rate of malpractice reports stood out, the raw number of 5,078 reports between 2022 and 2026 put Florida in the second spot of highest total number of reports, falling behind only New York which had 5,321 reports of malpractice in that state. New York also had a much higher malpractice rate of 97.2 reports for every 1,000 practitioners.
“Florida’s 5,078 total malpractice reports rank second nationally, illustrating how both a large healthcare workforce and a high reporting rate contribute to the state’s substantial malpractice burden,” researchers said in the study.
All in the lower five states for the number of reports had 200 or fewer total reports in between 2022 to 2026.