Errors don't just happen at hospitals

NEW YORK - Malpractice claims for medical errors are common outside hospitals, according to a US study that highlights safety problems at doctors' offices as well.

Previous studies have focused mainly on hospitals, some of which now have checklists in place to help prevent mistakes.

But researchers led by Tara Bishop, at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, found that about half of all US malpractice payments from 2009 involved patients seen outside the hospital.