In light of the medical safety control standards for general hospital appraisal in Zhejiang and the principles followed in designing the standards, the authors put forward some suggestions for medical institutions to improve their medical safety control. ①Medical safety occupies a key position in hospital appraisal standards. Some points are presented for discussion with regard to the criteria for malpractice-caused deduction of marks. ②The focal point of medical safety control lies in prevention. Medical institutions and their staff ought to have a correct understanding of malpractice and try to remove hidden dangers. The directive function of plans for preventing and handling malpractice ought to be brought into full play. In addition, nationally uniform and comprehensive criteria and routines for diagnostic, treatment and nursing procedures ought to be set up speedily. ③ It is imperative to make use of advanced means so as to ensure the smooth, timely and efficient reporting and feedback of medical safety information. ④The idea of service ought to be reinforced and a risk assessment mechanism ought to be set up.

The implementation of the Malpractice Handling Regulations provides medical institutions with a new framework for guarding against and handling medical disputes. Compared with the Methods for Handling Malpractices, it has many merits. However, as a newly published set of laws and regulations, it will doubtlessly be tested and challenged in one way or another in actual practice. The authors attempt to present their viewpoints from the following perspectives. Firstly, the determination of the nature of a malpractice ought to be linked with the degree of involvement in it, and it is unwise to take cases of minor liabilities as malpractices. Secondly, the rules for identifying the degree of a malpractice in negotiated settlement fall short of being reasonable and are not easy to implement, thus adding to the difficulty of negotiated settlement. Thirdly, is the stipulation of compensation for malpractices only fair, sensible and legal? Is it conducive to the negotiated settlement of medical disputes? Fourthly, since the Malpractice Handling Regulations are lacking in attention to the problem of lengthy lingering in the hospital on the grounds of malpractices, the authors put forward the suggestion that administrative laws and regulations of health ought to provide necessary support in terms of health laws and regulations for the judicial settlement of such cases.