Healthcare Governance Review editor Professor Stuart Emslie runs an annual masters module in risk management and clinical governance for, typically, 150-200 senior medical doctors and administrators across China. The students undertake a Master of Hospital Administration, which is jointly run by Flinders University in South Australia and Nankai University in China.
A few weeks ago a live baby was inadvertently ‘disposed of’ by clinical staff in a hospital in southern China, very close to where Stuart was running his module in Guangzhou. The China Daily reported a problem with ‘hospital management’ and ‘medical ethics’ (click here). Some of the students were familiar with the staff involved in the incident and, as part of the module, carried out a mini root cause analysis (RCA) into the incident, citing fundamental root causes as inadequacies in management and clinical governance. One of a number of fishbone diagrams describing contributing factors and root causes regarding the baby disposal incident (apologies – we have yet to receive the written translation, but will post it when it arrives – Ed.).
