CPSA CPSA MCQ 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following events is classified as a 'never event' by the National Quality Forum (NQF)?
- A patient fall without injury
- Surgery performed on the wrong patient (Correct answer)
- An unreported medication error
- A hospital-acquired urinary tract infection
Correct answer: Surgery performed on the wrong patient
Wrong-patient surgery is among the NQF's Serious Reportable Events (never events)—preventable, serious, and unambiguous events that should never occur in a healthcare setting.
Question 2: A CPSA candidate is reviewing an aggregated adverse event trend. Which analytical tool BEST displays frequency of error types in rank order?
- Run chart
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Scatter diagram
- Control chart
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart ranks categories by frequency from highest to lowest, helping teams prioritize which error types account for the majority of harm (80/20 rule).
Question 3: The 'two-patient identifier' rule requires staff to verify a patient's identity using:
- Room number and bed number
- At least two patient-specific identifiers such as name and date of birth (Correct answer)
- The patient's diagnosis and attending physician
- Insurance ID and medical record number only
Correct answer: At least two patient-specific identifiers such as name and date of birth
The Joint Commission requires using at least two patient-specific identifiers (e.g., name, date of birth, or MRN) before administering care, medication, or procedures.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes the role of a patient safety officer (PSO) in an organization?
- Investigating and disciplining staff involved in errors
- Overseeing the organization's patient safety program and culture improvement (Correct answer)
- Approving all clinical protocols before implementation
- Managing compliance with billing and coding regulations
Correct answer: Overseeing the organization's patient safety program and culture improvement
The PSO leads and coordinates the organization's patient safety program, including event reporting, RCA oversight, culture assessment, and safety improvement initiatives.
Question 5: A hospital implements a rapid response team (RRT). The PRIMARY goal of this intervention is to:
- Replace the function of the ICU team
- Respond to cardiac arrests only
- Identify and intervene in patients showing early signs of deterioration (Correct answer)
- Reduce elective surgery cancellations
Correct answer: Identify and intervene in patients showing early signs of deterioration
Rapid response teams are activated when bedside staff detect early clinical deterioration, with the goal of preventing progression to cardiac arrest or other critical events.
Question 6: Which of the following is a characteristic of an effective patient safety event reporting system?
- Mandatory disclosure of reporter identity to leadership
- Focus only on events that caused serious patient harm
- Non-punitive, confidential, and used to drive system improvement (Correct answer)
- Accessible only to physicians and senior nursing staff
Correct answer: Non-punitive, confidential, and used to drive system improvement
Effective reporting systems are non-punitive and confidential to encourage broad participation, and findings must be fed back into process improvement to have impact.
Question 7: When applying the hierarchy of controls to patient safety, which intervention is MOST effective?
- Staff education and training
- Administrative policies and procedures
- Personal protective equipment
- Elimination of the hazard from the system (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Elimination of the hazard from the system
The hierarchy of controls places elimination at the top as the most effective strategy because it removes the hazard entirely rather than managing exposure to it.
CPSA CPSA MCQ 5
Which of the following events is classified as a 'never event' by the National Quality Forum (NQF)?