Abstract
The study reports the present situation concerninng medical accidents in Japan. 200 questionnaires were sent to hospitals in Aich, Gifu and Mie prefectures in Central Japan. Responses were received from 54 of these institutions. Results show that in each hospital an average of 257 incidents occurred per year, incidents where the staff were alarmed but were able to prevent critical injury to patients. The 54 responding hospitals reported a total of 35 accidents in which patients were injured or died, but of these only 4 were actually reported to the local government or the Ministry of health. Reasons cited for non-reporting were lack of an adequate working definition of a "critical incident", and lack of administrative systems for reporting to the authorities. 79.6% of the responding institutions have special standing committees concerned with the prevention of these accidents and 80% responded that critical medical accidents should be reported to the authorities. This report considers the reasons many institutions do not report such accidents to the government, and proposes that the government and medical institutions share relevant information and utilize it to prevent such accidents.
