Patient Injury Severity Scale

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice, I am not a financial advisor or an attorney. You have to reach out to your attorney for legal advice. The information presented here is purely for educational and entertainment purposes. These are my personal opinions and do not represent the opinions of my employer.

In this blog post you will learn the components and information about the patient injury severity scale for physicians.

What is Patient Injury Severity Scale?

Comparison of Claims Severity in Hospitalists vs. All Physicians | Severity Scale

As shown in the graph below, hospitalist care related claims resulted in more number of HIGH severity claims as compared to HIGH severity claims from all other physicians. This is directly associated with the number of high acuity level patients that hospitalists care for.

Looking into the Severity Scale

The Chart | Patient Injury Severity Scale for Physicians

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Injury Severity Scale
Low Severity
Emotional Only	N/A
Temporary Insignificant	Lacerations, contusions, minor scars, rash, no delay in recovery
Medium Severity
Temporary Minor	Infections, fractures, missed fractures, recovery delayed
Temporary Major	Burns, surgical material left in patient, drug side effect, recovery delayed
Permanent Minor	Loss of fingers, loss or damage to organs, non disabling injuries
High Severity
Permanent Significant	Deafness, loss of limb, loss of eye, loss of one kidney or lung
Permanent Major	Paraplegia, blindness, loss of two limbs, brain damage
Permanent Grave	Quadriplegia, severe brain damage, lifelong care or fatal prognosis
Death	N/A

Now we just discussed the components of the patient injury severity scale. Although most of the content presented in this blog post seems pretty basic, the goal of this blog post is to highlight the importance of topics that often fall through the cracks, and eventually get physicians and patients in trouble. I hope that you picked up at least a few key points from this article, to include them in your practice. Practice thoroughly, keep your patient safe, and you stay safe!

Please also read the rest of the blog articles in the same series: the 10 Best Risk Mitigation Strategies for Physicians to Avoid Having a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit, Top 6 Circumstances Contributing to Patient Injury, Medical Malpractice Lawsuit – 6 Most Common Medical Malpractice Claims, along with the Patient Injury Severity Scale.

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Patient Injury Severity Scale