Toward Establishing the System to Facilitate the Smooth Acceptance of Foreign Patients in Medical Institutions

Abstract

　In recent years our country's medical institutions have experienced an increase in foreign patients and a concomitant increase in the need to equip themselves with systems that enable the smooth acceptance of foreign patients. Within such medical institutions, when integrating systems to handle the intake of foreign patients, it can be thought that it is important that (1) the establishment must accurately grasp the current consultation status of its foreign patients and any issues it faces in relation to them, (2) the establishment should proactively make use of available social resources and information, and (3) it must construct an intake system which addresses its actual situation and base its considerations on the aforementioned two points. Further, with respect to foreign patients, it can be considered important that establishment ought, in order to prevent problems which may arise from differences in not only spoken language, but also in medical culture, medical tradition, and religious faith, beyond the obvious course of looking into a service for providing explanations and obtaining consent ahead of time, also thoroughly consider all other possible situations.