Will accident reports filed in hospitals in Japan be used in the future as evidence in malpractice lawsuits?
A major drawback of submission of so-called incident reports for medical institutions is that such reports may be able to be obtained on request by patients and to be used as evidence in malpractice lawsuits. In Japan, there are no established rules concerning the use of accident reports in medical lawsuits. More debate is needed for voluntary report systems to become established in medical institutions throughout Japan.
Yokota
T
T
Department of Surgery, Sendai National Hospital, Sendai, Japan. yo40@sh.comminet.or.jp
Kunii
Y
Y
Kikuchi
S
S
Yamada
Y
Y
Yamauchi
H
H
D030881:Disclosure; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008499:Medical Records / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*