"GC Green Cross Medical Foundation Faces One-Month Accreditation Revocation After Woman in Her 30s Undergoes Unnecessary Mastectomy"

Decision by the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Specimen Testing Consignment Accreditation Management Committee

GC Green Cross Medical Foundation, which mismanaged the results of a consigned specimen test and caused a woman in her 30s to undergo a mastectomy despite not having breast cancer, has been subjected to a one-month revocation of its pathology accreditation by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on August 1, the 2nd Specimen Testing Consignment Accreditation Management Committee held its first meeting of the year the previous day and made this decision. The committee, which is under the Minister of Health and Welfare, has the authority to accredit consignment institutions in accordance with the standards for consigned specimen testing.

In this meeting, the committee decided to revoke GC Green Cross Medical Foundation's pathology accreditation for one month based on the results of an on-site inspection by the Korean Society of Pathologists. GC Green Cross Medical Foundation is a testing institution that interprets consigned tissue tests and other analyses.

Woman wearing a breast cancer campaign ribbon. Getty Images

The victim, a woman in her 30s referred to as Ms. A, was diagnosed with breast cancer after a health checkup at a clinic-level medical institution in September of last year. As a result, she underwent partial mastectomy surgery. However, after the surgery, Ms. A later discovered that she did not actually have cancer.

This incident occurred because GC Green Cross Medical Foundation mistakenly classified the test results of another woman, who had been tested one day earlier, as those of Ms. A. GC Green Cross Medical Foundation acknowledged the mistake, stating, "It was a labeling error that occurred during the process of preparing slides for pathological diagnosis."

GC Green Cross Headquarters Exterior View

The committee explained that it decided on a one-month accreditation revocation after comprehensively considering the fact that actual harm was caused to the patient's health and that efforts to improve the situation after recognizing the issue were insufficient. As a result of this decision, GC Green Cross Medical Foundation will not be able to conduct specimen testing or claim health insurance testing fees in the field of pathology during the revocation period. The implementation date will be finalized after prior notification and submission of opinions.

Lee Jungkyu, Director of the Health Insurance Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated, "Incidents such as this specimen mix-up are serious matters directly related to the lives and safety of the public, and all parties involved must strive to manage the entire specimen testing process more safely." He added, "We will use this incident as an opportunity to pursue systemic improvements throughout the consignment and outsourcing of specimen testing."

The 2nd Committee consists of a total of 11 members, including representatives from relevant academic societies, consignment institutions, pharmaceutical organizations, and government officials, and is scheduled to operate until June 2028.