title: Responsibility for reporting patient death due to hospital error in Japan when an error occurred at a referring institution.
abstract: In Japan, physicians are required to report unexpected health care-associated patient deaths to the police. Patients needing to be transferred to another institution often have complex medical problems. If a medical error occurs, it may be either at the final or the referring institution. Some fear that liability will fall on the final institution regardless of where the error occurred or that the referring facility may oppose such reporting, leading to a failure to report to police or to recommend an autopsy. Little is known about the actual opinions of physicians and risk managers in this regard. The authors sent standardised, self-administered questionnaires to all hospitals in Japan that participate in the national general residency program. Most physicians and risk managers in Japan indicated that they would report a patient's death to the police where the patient has been transferred. Of those who indicated they would not report to the police, the majority still indicated they would recommend an autopsy
authors.affiliation: Medical Law and Ethics, Graduate School of Health Management, Keio University, Japan. sho-ichi@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shoichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Starkey
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare, Yamaguchi Prefectural University, Japan.
authors.forename: Etsuko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kamishiraki
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000401:mortality*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010360:Patient Transfer; D016495:Police; D012308:Risk Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult