Document Detail


Attitudes regarding reporting healthcare-associated patient deaths to the police: A nationwide survey of physicians and RMs in Japanese teaching hospitals.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20817591     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
In Japan, healthcare professionals are required by Article 21 of the Medical Practitioner's Law to report "unnatural deaths" to the police in cases of healthcare-associated patient death. The attitudes of medical personnel at the forefront of clinical medicine regarding reporting have not been described. We investigate the attitudes of physicians and risk managers (RMs) regarding reporting to the police under different circumstances. We sent standardized questionnaires to all hospitals in Japan that participate in the National General Residency Program. We asked physicians and RMs to indicate if they would report to the police or not under scenarios including cases where medical error is present, uncertain, or absent. We also asked if they would report when medical error had occurred and the cause-of-death was directly related, possibly related, or unrelated. We found most physicians believe they would report to the police if medical error clearly caused patient death. We found most RMs believe they would advise physicians to report given the same situation. Less but still a large number of participants favor reporting even when cause-of-death is not clearly related to medical care provided. This tendency persisted even when given a scenario where the hospital director opposed the decision to report.
Authors:
Shoichi Maeda; Etsuko Kamishiraki; Jay Starkey; Noriaki Ikeda
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan)     Volume:  12     ISSN:  1873-4162     ISO Abbreviation:  Leg Med (Tokyo)     Publication Date:  2010 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-10-05     Completed Date:  2011-01-28     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  100889186     Medline TA:  Leg Med (Tokyo)     Country:  Ireland    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  296-9     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Health Management, Keio University, 4411 Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-8530, Japan. sho-ichi@umin.ac.jp
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Attitude*
Cause of Death
Data Collection
Female
Hospital Administrators / psychology*
Hospital Mortality*
Hospitals, Teaching*
Humans
Japan
Male
Malpractice
Mandatory Reporting*
Middle Aged
Physicians / psychology*
Police*
Risk Management*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Analysis of the sarcomere protein gene mutation on cardiomyopathy - Mutations in the cardiac troponi...
Next Document:  Born to choose: the origins and value of the need for control.