Abstract
Systematic measures offering safe medical treatment are important obligations in medical facilities and the risk manager (hereafter “RM”) is involved throughout the treatment process. Since 2002 securing a safety management systems in medical institutions is practically required. The number of serious accidents decreased in each medical institution, however, repeated small incidents still have not been eliminated. While larger hospitals nowadays have an education system for RMs in place, generally speaking, there is not much research on risk management in other hospitals.
The purpose of this research is to clarify the problems of the risk manager and the hospital environment surrounding the position.
The research was done by a question and answer survey and by a qualitative research through group discussion. Findings are that RMs are working for medical safety. However, they don't take proactive action to solve medical safety problems and to express the need of more support in various ways.
As a result it is necessary to support RMs in small and medium-sized hospitals by systematically providing sources of information and consultation. Additionally, exposure to various health professions and interactive studies are necessary to provide more background and education for RMs to allow them to become independent and able to take creative actions by themselves.
