Abstract
Credentialing and privileging are common in the US for quality assurance of surgery. Many states have health care credentials and data collection acts that require standard forms to collect credential data commonly requested by health care entities and health care plans for credentialing and recredentialing. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, http://www.jointcommission.org/) (JACAHO) is responsible for updating surgeon privileges in every two years. In Japan, such systems based on peer review have yet to be formed. With increasing risk of malpractice suits, the need for ensuring the quality of surgical management is expanding. At Kyorin University, a credential committee has been formed for granting privileges to surgeons. Surgical procedures were stratified in five categories based on technical difficulty, and estimated blood loss and procedure duration of were standardized. A precautionary system was also formed that enables other surgeons of unexpected difficulty in surgery. This precautary system was designed to run when blood loss or surgical time exceeds twice as much as the standard. We expect this system to help reduce adverse outcomes in surgical procedures involving hospital death, reoperation, and serious complications.
