RESUMO
Comparison of the institutional setup, policies and adverse event report mechanism for medical risk control in the countries of UK, USA, Canada, and Australia by means of browsing information on their official websites. It is found that these countries maintain a national patient safety authority, coupled with a tiered management at national, local, medical institutions and NGOs level; the USA pattern features laws and regulations, that of UK and Australia features guidelines as policy guarantee for medical safety; these countries regulate adverse event reporting by either government leadership or cooperation with trade associations. Inspirations from this study suggest China to enhance institutional construction, complete regulations, and advocate the culture for medical safety, and to build the national-level reporting and study system for medical safety events, and improve medical risk management.