Root Cause Analysis
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a standard tool used to help health care organizations learn from errors, particularly those that result in harm. RCA is applied to address three key questions about a particular situation: •What happened?
•Why did it happen?
•What can be done to prevent it from happening again?
For this Discussion, you and your colleagues work together as a team to analyze a particular situation. You must use the Discussion forum, but it is up to your team to determine how you will collaborate. Depending on how you structure the process, it may be necessary for each person to make multiple postings. In addition to incorporating information from various Learning Resources, you are encouraged to conduct your own research for this Discussion using the Walden Library and credible websites.
Each team member will be evaluated individually according to the Discussion rubric in the Grading area.
It is highly recommended that you select a team facilitator (preferably by Day 2 of Week 9) to lead the dialogue process.
To prepare for and complete this Discussion: •Examine the steps for conducting a root cause analysis presented in the Nicolini, Waring, and Mengis article. This article will serve as a foundation for the Discussion. If you were conducting a root cause analysis in a health care organization with the actual individuals involved, you would be able to use these steps more fully. You will use these steps as a jumping off point for discussion and analysis.
As a team, discuss each step in the root cause analysis process in relation to the “The Unintended Consequences of Being Friendly: A Case Study” article presented in the Learning Resources. The following are a few questions to help guide your Discussion.
◦What qualitative and quantitative information would help you address each step in the analysis? Identify as much information as you can for each step in the root cause analysis process. For instance, what indicators from the case study should be included as facts?
◦If certain information is not provided in the case study, how would you, as a team, proceed to gather data?
◦Who should participate in this analysis? Which roles or which specific individuals should be invited to participate?
◦What questions or considerations would help to guide your investigation?
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