In recent two decades, the incidence and severity of medical disputes have been dramatically increasing in China which has a negative influence for patients, doctors and hospitals. It must be seriously regarded that 80% of the medical disputes are caused by the bad attitude of health care professionals, ethical problems, and poor communication skill with patients. Chinese health care professionals should be aware of how to establish a good doctor-patient relationship. The development of evidence-based medicine (EBM) will help us bridge a gap between medical science and clinical practice, revise our opinions, update our knowledge and improve our service. Cooperation with the Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Center (CEBMC), and the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (CMDA) will help doctors practice legally and in an evidence-based manner so as to protect both rights of patients and doctors.
As a new discipline, the cardiac surgery has a great development in the modern age, but still faces many problems and disputes. The emergence of the evidence-based medicine (EBM), which emphasizes the best evidence, and combines the doctor’s clinical experience to make the best judgment, gives the development of the cardiac surgery a new thinking. Four systematic reviews published in The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2004) have interprated the importance of EBM on how to resolve the actual problems in different field of the cardiac surgery.
ObjectiveTo explore the teaching effects of scene simulation of medical disputes in clinical skills training. MethodsBetween September 2012 and June 2013, 93 clinical medicine undergraduates in Grade 2010 (8-year study) were randomly divided into the scene simulation teaching of medical disputes group (n=47) and the control group with traditional training (n=46) for clinical skills training. Teaching effects were assessed by clinical skills operation tests. ResultsThrough scene simulation teaching of medical disputes, the trainees' clinical disposal ability, operating skills, communication skills, cultural knowledge, and legal knowledge dimension scores were all significantly better than previous tests (P<0.05). ConclusionScene simulation of medical disputes has an obvious advantage in clinical skills training.
ObjectiveTo learn about the awareness of medical liability-related provisions of Tort Liability Act of undergraduates in medical schools, thus to provide reference for the modification of teaching plans of undergraduate medical education. MethodsBetween September and December 2012, we conducted a sampling survey on undergraduates of West China Medical School using a self-designed questionnaire about medical liability-related provisions of Tort Liability Act. ResultsGenerally, students'awareness of the provisions was low, and most of the students did not have a good understanding of the provisions related to medical disputes. The respondents'knowledge of medical liability-related provisions of Tort Liability Act did not match with their grade in school and their level of medical knowledge. Most of their knowledge about medical law was learned from mass media. Undergraduate medical students had an expectation to learn more about medical law from class. ConclusionMedical law classes should be put into the teaching plans of medical education.
ObjectiveTo provide some basic data for studies in the future on the prevention of medical disputes by exploring its patterns and reasons. MethodsFifty-five processed medical disputes cases accepted between 2012 and 2014 were retrospectively analyzed for their patterns and causes. ResultsThe number of males in the medical disputes was higher than that of females (male: 60.0%, female: 40.0%), and patients at the age of 40-70 also led in the disputes (aged 40-50: 20.0%, aged 50-60: 18.2%; aged 60-70: 20.0%). There were more medical disputes in the department of cardiology (20.0%), orthopedics (16.4%), otolaryngology (12.7%), and gynecology (10.9%). ConclusionThere are differences in gender and age of the patients as well as departments in terms of medical disputes. We should try to discover the regular patterns of these disputes. Besides those existing medical indexes, we should establish other warning systems through psychological and sociological status of medical staff and patients for reducing medical disputes, which can surely help the administration of medical quality intervention on medical disputes.
ObjectiveTo understand the cognition and mediation tendencies of health care workers in terms of third-party mediation for medical disputes, analyze the factors influencing the trust of both doctors and patients on third-party mediation, and propose suggestions on building third-party mediation mechanisms for medical disputes. MethodsBetween August and December 2012, we made the cognition questionnaire on third-party mediation for medical disputes based on the past medical literature, and the knowledge of doctor-patient relationship as well as third-party mediation agency's organizational structure (including locations and management authorities), staffing, mediation basis, validity sources and fund ensuring. We performed the random cluster sampling survey on all health care workers in five hospitals of different levels. The original data were put into the computer for statistical analysis by SPSS 18.0. ResultsThe knowledge of health care workers on third-party mediation was high. They believed that the best place for solving medical disputes should be the court or judicial administrative department, and the management authorities should be health administrative departments. In case of mediation failure, the majority of health care staff chose to continue to solve the dispute through legal channels. For the effectiveness of mediation conclusion, most health care workers tended to believe in the form of arbitration. They thought that mediators should have professional background of medicine and law; the majority of those surveyed doctors tended to accept forensic conclusions as a basis for mediation. For determining the compensation, doctors were in favor of Applicable Regulations for Medical Malpractice. Over 40% of medical staff believed that third-party mediation should be financed by government financial allocation, and more than half of the medical staff believed that it should be paid by the insurance company. ConclusionThird-party mediation should be set in and managed by the court or judicial and administrative departments. Mediator group should be formed by professionals of law and medical sciences. In the mediation process, it is recommended that the focus of controversy should be identified by forensic identification in order to form a clear division of responsibilities and high mediation efficiency. We recommend that the government introduce in financial allocations at all levels on the basis of medical liability insurance system, and force medical institutions to purchase medical liability insurance through the regulations of law, in order to provide funding support for the operation of third-party mediation organizations. Meanwhile, medical liability insurance companies should be operated under strict supervision to avoid their interference on the mediation work.
ObjectiveTo understand patients’ cognition of third-party mediation model for medical disputes, analyze the factors influencing the trust of patients on third-party mediation, and propose recommendations for building third-party mediation mechanisms. MethodsFrom November 2013 to April 2014, we referred past literature to design a relevant questionnaire on the cognition of third-party mediation for medical disputes. Patients who had reached the end of the treatment were surveyed by random cluster sampling. The raw data were put into the computer for statistical analysis by SPSS 18.0. ResultsAfter giving out 500 questionnaires, we acquired 486 effective questionnaires. The result showed that 61.52% of the patients knew of third-party mediation; 55.35% of the patients considered that thirdparty mediation should be set in and supervised by the court or judicial administrative department; if the mediation failed, 57.41% of the patients chose to resolve the dispute through legal channels, and 67.90% of the patients tended to confirm the force of mediation conclusion by arbitration; 70.58% of the patients considered that mediators should have professional background of medicine and law; 73.05% of the patients tended to take conclusions of forensic identification as the basis for mediation; 64.81% of the patients were biased to take Tort Liability Act as the basis for determining the compensation; 53.70% of the patients believed that financial allocations could solve the fund problems of third-party mediation, while 38.48% of the patients thought the funds should be provided by insurance companies; 91.15% of the patients thought the medical institutions should purchase medical liability insurance, and 54.32% of the patients thought insurance companies should not intervene the process of meditation. Conclusions Government should provide financial allocations to ensure the funds of third-party mediation. Besides, medical insurance should be brought in as a supplement. Medical institutions should purchase medical liability insurance to solve problems caused by medical disputes. Third-party mediation should be set in and supervised by the court or the judicial administrative department. Mediators should have professional background of medicine and law. Conclusions of forensic identification should be the basis for third-party mediation.
ObjectiveTo provide references in the forensic identification of injury and cerebrovascular malformation involved death cases, and to reduce the relevant medical dispute by exploring the forensic pathological features, identification of medical dispute as well as relationship between injury and disease. MethodsWe collected 33 cases of cerebrovascular malformation from January 2006 to December 2014 in West China Center of Forensic Medicine, including details of cases, clinical medical record and forensic pathology examination, and then the cases were retrospectively analyzed. ResultsIn the 33 cases, the average age of the individuals was 37.4 years old, and the male/female ratio was 23/10. Nineteen patients (57.6%) died within 1 hour. Seventeen patients with mixed pathological type of cerebrovascular malformation dominated (51.5%). Medical dispute happened in 7 cases (21.1%), 4 of which were identified to be led by medical fault and 3 with no medical fault. Relationship between injury and disease was analyzed in 11 cases (33.3%), in which injury was identified to take full responsibility in 1 case, inductive cause of death in 9 cases, and no relationship between injury and death in 1 case. ConclusionComprehensive and systematic investigation of forensic pathology plays an important role in the proper settlement of medical disputes as well as the identification of cause of death and relationship between injury and disease.