Patient Safety & Care Quality Flashcards

Which organization publishes the annual National Patient Safety Goals that accredited hospitals must implement?

Answer: The Joint Commission (TJC)

The Joint Commission publishes and updates the National Patient Safety Goals annually, which all TJC-accredited organizations are required to implement.

A 'Never Event' in healthcare is best defined as:

Answer: A serious, largely preventable adverse event that should never occur in a healthcare setting

Never Events are serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if appropriate safeguards are in place, such as wrong-site surgery.

The 'Swiss Cheese Model' of patient safety, commonly used to explain how errors cause harm, was developed by:

Answer: James Reason

James Reason developed the Swiss Cheese Model, which illustrates how multiple defensive layers each containing holes (weaknesses) can align to allow errors to reach the patient.

Which quality improvement methodology uses the DMAIC framework (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) to reduce process variation?

Answer: Six Sigma

Six Sigma uses the DMAIC framework as a data-driven approach to eliminate defects and reduce variation in healthcare processes.

A Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is best described as:

Answer: A proactive risk assessment tool that identifies potential process failures before they occur

FMEA is a prospective, proactive tool used to systematically identify potential failure modes in a process and assess their likely effects before harm reaches the patient.

Which of the following is a core principle of a High Reliability Organization (HRO) as applied to healthcare?

Answer: Maintaining a preoccupation with failure and sensitivity to operations

HROs are defined by five principles including preoccupation with failure, sensitivity to operations, reluctance to simplify, deference to expertise, and commitment to resilience.

Which metric is used to compare a hospital's actual number of healthcare-associated infections to the predicted number based on national baseline data?

Answer: Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR)

The Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) compares observed HAI counts to predicted counts derived from national baseline data, adjusting for patient risk factors.