Root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) are quality improvement processes used for identifying the basic or causal factors that underlie performance variation, including the occurrence and possible occurrence of adverse effects, and finding a means of correcting these variations. The outcomes of these processes are a greater organizational understanding of potential causes of errors, the capacity to formulate a plan for improvement efforts, and the implementation of protocols for effective follow-up monitoring.

The GNYHA Foundation was awarded funding from the New York State Department of Health under the Health Workforce Retraining Initiative to develop a training program in these areas. The trainings were developed in response to changes in the health care environment in patient safety and medical errors that are affecting the nature of the work of many health care practitioners.

A product of the training program was the update of a resource guide developed several years ago that hospital staff can use. The resource guide reinforces the content of the trainings and serves as an excellent field guide to enable participants to implement the RCA/FMEA processes at their facilities. The resource guide also serves to extend the project beyond the activities covered in the grant period.

For more information, please see GNYHA's Conducting Root Cause Analysis:A Resource Guide for Health Care Providers.