Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb 11;32(1):191-207.
doi: 10.1108/IJHCQA-12-2017-0233.

Evaluating inputs of failure modes and effects analysis in identifying patient safety risks

Mecit Can Emre Simsekler  1   2 , Gulsum Kubra Kaya  3 , James R Ward  3 , P John Clarkson  3
Affiliations

Evaluating inputs of failure modes and effects analysis in identifying patient safety risks

Mecit Can Emre Simsekler et al. Int J Health Care Qual Assur. .

Abstract

Purpose: There is a growing awareness on the use of systems approaches to improve patient safety and quality. While earlier studies evaluated the validity of such approaches to identify and mitigate patient safety risks, so far only little attention has been given to their inputs, such as structured brainstorming and use of system mapping approaches (SMAs), to understand their impact in the risk identification process. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the inputs of a well-known systems approach, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), in identifying patient safety risks in a real healthcare setting.

Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted in a newly established adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder service at Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust in the UK. Three stakeholders of the chosen service together with the facilitators conducted an FMEA exercise along with a particular system diagram that was initially found as the most useful SMA by eight stakeholders of the service.

Findings: In this study, it was found that the formal structure of FMEA adds value to the risk identification process through comprehensive system coverage with the help of the system diagram. However, results also indicates that the structured brainstorming refrains FMEA participants from identifying and imagining new risks since they follow the process predefined in the given system diagram.

Originality/value: While this study shows the potential contribution of FMEA inputs, it also suggests that healthcare organisations should not depend solely on FMEA results when identifying patient safety risks; and therefore prioritising their safety concerns.

Keywords: Patient safety; Risk management; System thinking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Alamry A, Al Owais SM, Marini AM, Al-Dorzi H, Alsolamy S, Arabi Y. Application of Failure Mode Effect Analysis to Improve the Care of Septic Patients Admitted Through the Emergency Department. Journal of Patient Safety. 2017;13(2):76. - PubMed
    1. Ashley L, Armitage G. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis: An Empirical Comparison of Failure Mode Scoring Procedures. Journal of Patient Safety. 2010;6(4):210–215. - PubMed
    1. Battles JB, Dixon NM, Borotkanics RJ, Rabin-Fastmen B, Kaplan HS. Sensemaking of Patient Safety Risks and Hazards. Health Services Research. 2006;41(4 Pt 2):1555–1575. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carayon P, Wetterneck TB, Rivera-Rodriguez AJ, Hundt AS, Hoonakker P, Holden R, Gurses AP. Human factors systems approach to healthcare quality and patient safety. Applied Ergonomics. 2014;45(1):14–25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Card AJ, Simsekler MCE, Clark M, Ward JR, Clarkson PJ. Use of the Generating Options for Active Risk Control (GO-ARC) Technique can lead to more robust risk control options. The International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. 2014;26(4):199–211. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms