Preventing a Second 'Jeju National University Hospital Infant Death Incident'

Kang Ki-yoon "No Recurrence of Unfortunate Accidents Due to Lack of Dedicated Personnel"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] On the 6th, Kang Ki-yoon, a member of the People Power Party, officially proposed the "Patient Safety Act Amendment" to minimize medical accidents.

The amendment includes ▲clarification of the duties of dedicated patient safety personnel ▲establishment of a direct verification system for the performance of dedicated personnel duties ▲creation of an in-hospital patient safety education system.

According to current law, general hospitals with 500 or more beds must have two dedicated personnel responsible for promptly notifying and responding to patients and the government in the event of a medical accident. However, in medical settings, these dedicated personnel often handle multiple tasks simultaneously or lack sufficient training.

It has been pointed out that the death of a 13-month-old infant due to a medical accident at Jeju National University Hospital last March was mainly caused by the absence of the dedicated personnel's role, which prevented prompt emergency treatment.

Rep. Kang stated, "Some medical institutions have only appointed dedicated patient safety personnel but have hardly allowed them to perform their proper roles," adding, "Unfortunate incidents where patients are not protected due to the absence of dedicated personnel roles during medical accidents must not recur."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.