Recent revelations of a failure to report several cases involving heart patients who died after surgery by the same doctor illustrate defects in the current system in which medical malpractice must be reported to the directors and other administrators of hospitals.

Investigations at Tokyo Medical University Hospital following the deaths of a number of patients after heart valve operations were conducted only at departmental level, including that of a joint committee from the surgical and internal medicine departments.

The department's investigations concluded the deaths were not caused by malpractice, a hospital insider said.

Because the four deaths were judged not to be the result of "incidents that caused actual harm due to improper medical practices," it was deemed unnecessary to report them to the hospital's director or an official responsible for safety management.

However, it was abnormal for four patients to die in a short period after undergoing the same operation involving the same doctor, and the doctor in question was removed from the surgery roster for heart valve operations after the death of the third patient.

With this in mind, it should have been natural for the hospital to have further examined the cases.

The system for internally reporting medical errors in hospitals was established in April 2000 by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in the wake of a series of medical accidents.

The system was imposed on university hospitals and other designated medical institutions providing advanced treatment, together with an order to improve guidelines on safety management…………. CONTINUES…………www.yomiuri.jp