Maple Grove surgeon Joseph Pietrafitta has been sued at least six times for malpractice, leading to $1.2 million in settlements for former patients. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice also has cited some of the lawsuits in ordering Pietrafitta to take corrective action for "inappropriate" conduct. In 2010, no conventional insurance carrier would give him malpractice coverage, court records show. That could have put him out of business, but Pietrafitta got coverage from the -Minnesota Joint Underwriting Association (MJUA), the insurer of last resort. The MJUA was created by the Legislature in 1976 to provide liability insurance to doctors, nurses and hospitals unable to get it anywhere else.
