Evaluating the application of failure mode and effects analysis technique in hospital wards: a systematic review

Abstract

Abstract:Background:Medical errors are one of the greatest problems in any healthcare systems. The best way to prevent such problems is errors identification and their roots. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) technique is a prospective risk analysis method. This study is a review of risk analysis using FMEA technique in different hospital wards and departments. Methods:This paper has systematically investigated the available databases. After selecting inclusion and exclusion criteria, the related studies were found. This selection was made in two steps. First, the abstracts and titles were investigated by the researchers and, after omitting papers which did not meet the inclusion criteria, 22 papers were finally selected and the text was thoroughly examined. At the end, the results were obtained. Results:The examined papers had focused mostly on the process and had been conducted in the pediatric wards and radiology departments, and most participants were nursing staffs. Many of these papers attempted to express almost all the steps of model implementation; and after implementing the strategies and interventions, the Risk Priority Number (RPN) was calculated to determine the degree of the technique’s effect. However, these papers have paid less attention to the identification of risk effects. Conclusions:The study revealed that a small number of studies had failed to show the FMEA technique effects. In general, however, most of the studies recommended this technique and had considered it a useful and efficient method in reducing the number of risks and improving service quality.

Using the quality improvement (QI) tool Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to examine implementation barriers to common workflows in integrated pediatric care.

“…Conducting our FMEA process across multiple practices contributes uniquely to the field of pediatric BH integration. To date, many studies documenting use of FMEA are conducted in one setting (Asgari Dastjerdi et al, 2017). Utilizing FMEA across multiple practices with distinctive contexts and diverse patient populations highlighted the commonalities of implementation challenges in pediatric BH integration.…”

“…FMEA is a QI tool developed in the automotive and aerospace engineering industries to identify, prioritize, and mitigate failures and errors of different system designs (Rhee & Ishii, 2003; Shorstein et al, 2017). FMEA has been adapted for use in health care settings to proactively assess and improve complex health care processes (Asgari Dastjerdi, Khorasani, Yarmohammadian, & Ahmadzade, 2017; Schurman, Gayes, Slosky, Hunter, & Pino, 2015). The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations recommends FMEA as a risk management model for U.S. healthcare organizations.…”

Healthcare Safety Management: The Model of Fmea/Fmeca in Anatomic Pathology Service

“…Process analysis, error handling and assessment of programs for risk reduction are considered an important part of corporate policies for quality built on the concept of "patient at the centre" [2]. Recommendations and guidelines dealing with themes such as patient safety goals and error reduction have been widely published and released in the last twenty years [3,5,13]. Although there has been heavy emphasis on medication errors and hospital care in the whole period, scrutiny has been more recently applied to different fields of health care and to the work of clinical and pathology laboratories [7,12].…”

“…Quality appears as a comprehensive and multifaceted concept whose dimensions vary in importance depending on the situation: technical competence, accessibility, effectiveness, interpersonal relationship, efficiency, continuity, safety and adequate facilities [3,4]. Risks are no longer thought in a negative sense but can be perceived as a tool to identify opportunities for improving the outcome of health care services [5]. Risk management is a process consisting of several main phases, as risk identification, estimation and control, and should hence embrace all its phases to achieve its goal, that is ensuring patient safety [6].…”

“…The method of FMEA is useful and can be applied valuably for obtaining new improvement goals and deep changes of an already existing product or process, to ensure more reliability and analyze causes of flaws in already established flows, and finally as a tool for organizational learning [5]. This systematic method is based on team work for identification, evaluation, prevention, control or the elimination of the causes and effects of potential risks in a system before a final product is delivered to a final user [5,8]. Main goal is to discover latent conditions and active failures and to prioritize these based on the potential severity of risks associated with them.…”