Patient care at hospitals hit by loss of files in tsunami (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

The Yomiuri Shimbun

At least 14 hospitals in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures lost their medical records in the March 11 tsunami, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, making it difficult to verify patients' medical histories and courses of medication.

Numerous records were washed away or rendered illegible by the water, the survey found. However, Ishinomaki Municipal Hospital in Miyagi Prefecture suffered minimal losses because it had digitized its data and kept backup copies at a hospital in Yamagata.

The central government has began discussing the creation of a legal framework to urge hospitals to back up their medical records. However, most of the nation's facilities still keep only paper records, and the government expects digitization to take a significant amount of time.

Dr. Takeshi Kanno, 31, recently responded to numerous telephone inquiries at a temporary clinic established at an evacuation center in Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture. The questions were from hospitals that had taken in patients previously treated at Shizugawa Hospital in the city, where Kanno used to work and which was seriously damaged by the March 11 tsunami.

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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110625003054.htm