Introduction to Patient Safety | Study

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO PATIENT SAFETY 1
Introduction to Patient Safety
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INTRODUCTION TO PATIENT SAFETY 2
Introduction to Patient Safety
The desire to enhance the safety of patients has resulted in innovations used to solve
healthcare challenges (Knox et al., 2015). Different tools and frameworks have been developed
across the globe to assist healthcare professionals to address the critical issues in their facilities
or communities. One of the frameworks commonly used in healthcare is Root Cause Analysis
(RCA), which plays a key role in identifying and solving problems as illustrated in this paper.
Meaning of Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a framework that defines a process that is used to identify
the causes of a problem, issue, or phenomenon and seek to establish control measures to improve
outcomes. RCA focuses on variation in outcome or performance. In this case, an existing
problem produces unexpected results or adverse implications (Joint Commission, 2015).
Therefore, the use of RCA comes as a strategy to identify the causes of the variations to solve the
issue. A root cause is considered as the primary issue that brings about a negative effect on
performance. RCA is established on a positive and preventive dimension of the problem as
opposed to the negative approach. The use of RCA has been considered as an effective and
powerful tool that organizations could use to solve key issues and improve performance and
outcomes (Knox et al., 2015). RCA is carried out when seeking to reduce exposure to risk
factors. The approach is also used when organizations are seeking to identify where a problem
originates especially when the cause is not clear. Appropriate use RCA guarantees the expected
outcomes; however, it is important to consider how and when the framework could be
incorporated when solving an issue in the organization.