Topic 5 Understanding and and Learning From Error

Topic 5
Understanding and
and learning from error
Learning objective
Understand the nature of error and how health

care can learn from error to improve patient
safety
Knowledge requirement
Explain the terms error, violation,

near miss, hindsight bias
Performance requirements:
o know the ways to learn from errors

o participate in the analysis of an
adverse event
o practise strategies to reduce errors
Error
a simple definition is:
o “Doing the wrong thing when meaning to do the
right thing.”
Runciman
a more formal definition is:

o “Planned sequences of mental or physical
activities that fail to achieve their intended
outcomes, when these failures cannot be
attributed to the intervention of some chance
agency.”
Reason
Note: violation
A deliberate deviation from an accepted

protocol or standard of care
Error and outcome
o error and outcome are not inextricably linked:

o harm can befall a patient in the form of a
complication of care without an error having
occurred
o many errors occur that have no consequence
for the patient as they are recognized before
harm occurs
Human factors principles
remind us
Error is the inevitable downside

of having a brain!
One definition of “human error”

is “human nature”.
Human beings make
“silly” mistakes
Regardless of their experience,
intelligence, motivation or vigilance, people
make mistakes
Activity
Think about and then discuss with your colleagues any
“silly” mistakes you have made recently when you
were not in your place of work or study - and why
you think they happened
Health-care context is
problematic
o when errors occur in the workplace the consequences
can be a problem for the patient
o a situation that is relatively unique to health care
o in all other respects there is nothing unique about

“medical” errors
o they are no different from the human factors problems
that exist in settings outside health care
Attentional slips
of action
Skill -based slips

and lapses
Lapses of
memory
Errors
Rule -based
mistakes
M istakes
Know ledge -based

m istakes
Reason
Situations associated with an
increased risk of error
o unfamiliarity with the task*
o inexperience*
o shortage of time
o inadequate checking
o poor procedures
o poor human equipment interface
Vincent
* Especially if combined with lack of supervision

Individual factors that
predispose to error
o limited memory capacity
o further reduced by:

o fatigue
o stress
o hunger
o illness
o language or cultural factors
o hazardous attitudes
Don’t forget ….
If you’re
o H ungry
H
o A ngry A
o L ate
or
L
o T ired ….. T
A performance-shaping
factors “checklist”
o I Illness
o M Medication
o prescription, alcohol and others
o S Stress
o A Alcohol
o F Fatigue
o E Emotion
Am I safe to work today?

Jensen, 1987
Incident monitoring
o involves collecting and analysing information

about any events that could have harmed or
did harm anyone in the organization
o a fundamental component of an
organization’s ability to learn from error
Removing error traps
o a primary function of an incident reporting

system is to identify recurring problem areas
- known as “error traps” (Reason)
o identifying and removing these traps is one of

the main functions of error management
Error traps
Hindsight Bias
Before the After the

Incident Incident
Modified from Cook, 1997

Culture: a workable
definition (Reason)
Shared values (what is important) and

beliefs (how things work) that interact
with an organization’s structure and
control systems to produce behavioural
norms (the way we do things around here)
Safety culture
Culture in the workplace
o it is hard to “change the world” as a junior
doctor
o but …
o you can be on the look out for ways to improve
the “system”
o you can contribute to the culture in your work
environment
Incident reporting and
monitoring strategies
o others include:
o anonymous reporting
o timely feedback
o open acknowledgement of successes resulting from
incident reporting
o reporting of near misses
o “free lessons” can be learned
o system improvements can be instituted as a result of the
investigation but at no “cost” to a patient
Larson
Root cause analysis
Established by the US Department of

Veterans Affairs
National Center for Patient Safety
http://www.va.gov/NCPS/curriculum/RCA/index.html
RCA model
o a rigorous, confidential approach to answering:
o What happened?
o Why did it happen?
o What are we going to do to prevent it from
happening again?
o How will we know that our actions improved
patient safety?
RCA model
o focuses on prevention, not blame or
punishment
o focuses on system level vulnerabilities rather
than individual performance
- communication - environment/equipment
- training - rules/policies/procedures
- fatigue/scheduling - barriers
Personal error
reduction strategies
o know yourself
o eat well, sleep well, look after yourself …
o know your environment
o know your task
o preparation and planning
o “What if …?”
o build “checks” into your routine
o Ask if you don’t know!
Mental preparedness
o assume that errors can and will occur
o identify those circumstances most likely to
breed error
o have contingencies in place to cope with
problems, interruptions and distractions
o mentally rehearse complex procedures
Reason
Getting the balance right

Summary
o medical error is a complex issue, but error itself is

an inevitable part of the human condition
o learning from error is more productive if it is
considered at an organizational level
o root cause analysis is a highly structured system
approach to incident analysis

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Topic 5

Understand the nature of error and how health

Explain the terms error, violation,

o know the ways to learn from errors

a more formal definition is:

A deliberate deviation from an accepted

o error and outcome are not inextricably linked:

Error is the inevitable downside

One definition of “human error”

o in all other respects there is nothing unique about

Skill -based slips

Know ledge -based

* Especially if combined with lack of supervision

o limited memory capacity

o further reduced by:

Am I safe to work today?

o involves collecting and analysing information

o a primary function of an incident reporting

o identifying and removing these traps is one of

Before the After the

Modified from Cook, 1997

Shared values (what is important) and

Established by the US Department of

Getting the balance right

o medical error is a complex issue, but error itself is

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