Abstract
It is now well recognized that the quality and safety of medical care is a matter of public Concern.
Our National Hospitals are about to become an “Independent Agency” called National Hospital Organization, and are expected to provide high-quality and safe medical care more efficiently.
To achieve this goal, we have started to introduce our own clinical indicator (CI) that is useful to measure the quality and outcome of our activities. CI has been applied to evaluate the performance of hospitals in Western countries, but it has not been widely introduced into Japan. In this symposium, the role, significance, and limitations of CI were discussed by five speakers with different backgrounds (researcher, president, medical staff, and nurse). Dr. Hasegawa noted that CI is useful to hospital administrators, medical staff, as well as patients, and hoped that the properuse of CI will make National Hospital Organization a leading hospital in Japan, just as has occurred in VA Hospitals in the USA. Dr. Nishima discussed, as Hospital President, the value and limitations of CI and concluded that introduction of CI will be indispensable to the future of Our group. Dr. Fujikane reported the results of a survey from the respiratory disease network, and Dr. Kurita stressed the importance of database for CI in cancer medicine. Finally, Ms. Koyama proposed that evaluation of nursing care should be incorporated into CI.
