CPHRM Patient Safety 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which communication tool uses a standardized framework of Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation to hand off patient information?
- SBAR (Correct answer)
- SOAP
- PASS
- RACE
Correct answer: SBAR
SBAR provides a structured method for clinicians to communicate critical patient information concisely and consistently during handoffs.
Question 2: A hospital's 'never event' policy is BEST aligned with which patient safety concept?
- Sentinel event prevention
- Proactive risk elimination of serious preventable adverse events (Correct answer)
- Root cause analysis triggers
- Near-miss reporting
Correct answer: Proactive risk elimination of serious preventable adverse events
Never events are serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents whose occurrence signals a fundamental lapse in safety barriers.
Question 3: Which method is used to proactively identify failure points in a clinical process BEFORE an adverse event occurs?
- Root cause analysis (RCA)
- Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) (Correct answer)
- Incident report review
- Peer review
Correct answer: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
FMEA is a prospective risk assessment tool that systematically evaluates where and how a process might fail before harm reaches a patient.
Question 4: Under what circumstance is a 'near miss' report MOST valuable to patient safety programs?
- When it results in patient harm
- When it identifies latent system vulnerabilities before an adverse event (Correct answer)
- When it is used to discipline staff
- When regulatory agencies require it
Correct answer: When it identifies latent system vulnerabilities before an adverse event
Near-miss events reveal system weaknesses that, if corrected, can prevent actual patient harm in the future.
Question 5: The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals primarily serve to:
- Replace state licensing requirements
- Focus accredited organizations on specific high-priority safety issues (Correct answer)
- Mandate staffing ratios
- Define reimbursement criteria
Correct answer: Focus accredited organizations on specific high-priority safety issues
National Patient Safety Goals identify and address problematic areas in healthcare and describe evidence-based and expert-based solutions to patient safety problems.
Question 6: Which organizational culture characteristic BEST supports voluntary error reporting by clinical staff?
- Punitive culture
- Just culture (Correct answer)
- Hierarchical culture
- Compliance culture
Correct answer: Just culture
A just culture distinguishes between blameless errors and reckless behavior, encouraging staff to report mistakes without fear of unjust punishment.
Question 7: A risk manager reviewing medication error trends notices most errors occur during the transcription step. This represents which type of error source?
- Active failure
- Latent failure (Correct answer)
- Sentinel event
- Adverse drug reaction
Correct answer: Latent failure
Latent failures are organizational or system-level weaknesses—such as poor transcription processes—that lie dormant until triggered by human action.
CPHRM Patient Safety 2
Which communication tool uses a standardized framework of Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation to hand off patient information?