[Countermeasures against patient misidentification in laboratory study--chairmen's introductory remarks].
Since the launch of the "National Joint Action of Risk Management" back in May, 2008, as a participating organization, The Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine has been running a Medical Safety Committee of our own. As part of our awareness education activities, our society has been holding symposia on medical safety at our annual meetings. In clinical practice, misidentification of patients is directly connected to serious medical mistakes. Although clinical practice itself must be safe for all, the actual clinical setting poses many hazards that could lead to medical professionals making errors. Since misidentification of patients regarding obtained specimens such as blood or physical function exams and misinterpretation of the exams itself can result in a serious outcome, every institute is using ingenious ways to keep close checks to prevent such misidentifications from happening. In this symposium, lectures were presented in the following subjects: A review on countermeasures against specimen misidentification in pathological exams in hospitals using electronic patient verification systems to prevent misidentification of patient blood samples, and hospitals where such systems are not employed; an introduction of countermeasures against specimen misidentification in pathological exams; and lastly, characteristics and limitations of human abilities, and process management, entitled "Human Factor Approaches to Medical Safety".
Department of Laboratory Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare Atami Hospital, Atami 413-0012, Japan. shime@iuhw.ac.jp
Naoto
N
Shimetani
Hiroshi
H
Yoshida
D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010355:Patient Identification Systems