Citation

Cohen MR, Senders J, Davis NM. Hosp. Pharm. 1994; 29(4): 319-330.

Affiliation

Institute for Safe Medication Practices, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Thomas Land Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10133461

Abstract

It is time that hospitals realize that human error is inevitable and must be anticipated. A technique developed in the aerospace industry and known as "failure mode and effects analysis" involves identifying mistakes that will happen before they happen, and determining whether the consequences of those mistakes would be tolerable or intolerable. This article shows how this practice can be adapted to a hospital environment by using a continuous quality improvement approach. Examples show how actual fatal errors can be prevented.

Language: en