Peer review
Peer review
Peer review
The Tokushukai Medical Group (TMG) first started Peer Review System in 2017 in Japan as part of an approach to medical safety. Although usual peer review system being performed by overseas medical institutions is the one in which colleagues, doctors, and/or other medical staff evaluate the medical practice of a doctor, the present peer review system is different from the conventional system. In the present peer review system, each evaluation committee of nine departments evaluate the respective department as a third party and then, the president of the hospital make efforts to improve latent problems, thereby analyzing their overall scores derived from the seven evaluation items. When overall scores below the average of Group hospitals last more than three months or a clinical urgent problem is reported, the chairman of the evaluation committee of the respective department follow-up the cause by analyzing the various kinds of data collected by remote access through Tokushukai Information System (TIS), which summarizes the database of Tokushukai Medical Group hospitals. On finding any problem, he reports the details to the president of the respective hospital.
In the United States of America, the American Surgeon Association developed a Hospital certification program, which led to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization (JACAHO) to improve medical safety in 1918, and the hospitals need the certification of JACAHO as a hospital covered by public medical system and private medical insurance for hospital management. Hence, medical facility and group medical care organizations are required for various kinds of measures and actions for securing medical quality and are obligated to prepare a peer review system. On the other hand, in Japan, trends towards medical safety and quality was growing, and peer review system became a prerequisite to acquire the certification of special function hospital notified by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to follow the TMG attempt.
A specific peer review initiative began in 2017 in the Department of Neurosurgery after one year preparation period and the number of involved departments has since increased to nine (surgery, cardiovascular surgery, orthopedics, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, cardiovascular medicine, and digestive organ internal medicine). During these three years, the problems were solved in few hospitals. In 2019, the executive office moved to Tokushukai Headquarters, and the peer review system was improved not only to be easier to understand by reducing the burden of clerks-in-charge such as nurses, medical information management officers, and medical clerks, but also to be evaluated rapidly.
TMG would progress by seeking improvement in medical safety and quality while considering the quality of medical care, although we are tackling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which brings a sense of uncertainty to future medical care.