The Dutch disciplinary law system offers patients the opportunity to file complaints against physicians outside a legal malpractice system, without the possibility of financial compensation. The goal of disciplinary law is to guard and protect patients from malpractice and negligence of individual physicians, to enhance public trust in the medical profession and to improve the quality of health care. Purpose of this study was 1. To determine the relative risk that a complaint is filled to a radiologist 2. To determine the causes of complaints

Approximately 7000 complaints lead to 3500 verdicts during a 7-year period of January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2014. (1) We searched for the term “radiologist”. We analysed all verdicts filled against radiologist. Furthermore we analysed all verdicts which contain the word radiologist. All cases in which a radiologist possible was involved in the complaint were analysed. Figure 1 and 2 is an example of a complaint agains multiple physicians, however the radiologist was not filled. Patient with a missed volvulus due to malrotation. The...

Of all complaints agains physicians 45 (< 1%) complaints were against radiologist, 27 came to court, 10 led to a verdict The latter were due to failure to diagnose (8), failure to communicate (2) poor supervision (1) failure to advice adequate follow-up. Compared to other specialties the relative risk of getting involved in a complaint submitted to a disciplinary tribunal is low. (Figure 3) A total of 368 verdicts contain the term “radiologist”. In 24 cases the complaint was radiology related (missed radiological diagnosis (11),...

Radiologists are at relative low risk in getting involved in a complaint to a DT. In a substantial part of complaints concerning missed diagnosis and inadequate communication the complaint is not against radiologists. The low risk of being involved in a disciplinary trial is due to the invisibility of the radiologist

1. The disciplinary law verdicts are on the Internet (http://www.tuchtrecht.nl retrieved december 2015, and since January 1, 2010, http://www.tuchtcollege-gezondheidszorg.nl). 2.Cognitive Errors in Radiology:“Thinking fast and slow”ECR 2014DOI: 10.1594/ecr2014/C-0899 G. Jager, J. J. Futterer, M. Rutten;