A Cost–Benefit Analysis tool for the economic and time savings of mediation in medical malpractice disputes

Abstract Medical malpractice disputes often impose significant economic and time burdens on healthcare systems, patients, and providers. Mediation is a promising, efficient and cost-effective alternative to litigation. Our objective was to develop a quantitative tool that quantifies the economic and time savings associated with the adoption of mediation in medical malpractice cases. We created a user-friendly, freely available R/Shiny application to estimate the net present value (NPV) of monetary and time savings from mediation versus traditional litigation. Substantial economic and time savings were projected across all scenarios. In high-income countries, a decade of implementing mediation for 2,000 annual claims yielded an estimated NPV of €115.22 million (95% CrI €81.73–€149.27 million) and 13,349 court-years saved. Corresponding savings for middle- and low-income countries were €47.97 million and €13.77 million, with 16,052 and 12,705 court-years saved, respectively. The tool enables interested stakeholders and policymakers to quantify the benefits of medical mediation under different settings as its flexible structure allows users to define their own input distributions and assumptions according to local policy and legal contexts.