CHL Patient Safety and Risk Management 4

Question 1

A hospital notices a cluster of surgical site infections over three weeks. Which initial step best follows a systems-thinking approach to patient safety?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a multidisciplinary root cause analysis to identify systemic factors

Answer

Root cause analysis examines systemic and process failures rather than blaming individuals, which is the foundation of a systems-thinking safety culture.

Question 2

Under the Safe Harbor provision in many state patient safety laws, what is the primary purpose of protecting peer review communications?

Accepted Answer

To encourage candid internal quality discussions without fear of legal discovery

Answer

Safe harbor protections are designed to foster open, honest peer review by keeping those discussions confidential and non-discoverable in litigation.

Question 3

A patient is given a medication intended for the patient in the next room but catches the error before administration. This event is best classified as a:

Accepted Answer

Near miss (close call)

Answer

A near miss is an unplanned event that did not reach the patient and cause harm, providing a valuable learning opportunity.

Question 4

The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) 01.01.01 primarily addresses which risk?

Accepted Answer

Patient identification errors

Answer

NPSG 01.01.01 requires using at least two patient identifiers before providing care, treatment, or services to prevent wrong-patient errors.

Question 5

Which failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) metric combines the likelihood of occurrence, severity, and detectability of a failure?

Accepted Answer

Risk priority number (RPN)

Answer

The risk priority number (RPN) is calculated by multiplying occurrence, severity, and detectability scores to prioritize which failure modes need the most urgent mitigation.

CHL - Certified Healthcare Leader Practice Test

CHL - Certified Healthcare Leader Practice Test

CHL Patient Safety and Risk Management 4