title: Cause-and-effect mapping of critical events.
abstract: Health care errors are routinely reported in the scientific and public press and have become a major concern for most Americans. In learning to identify and analyze errors health care can develop some of the skills of a learning organization, including the concept of systems thinking. Modern experts in improving quality have been working in other high-risk industries since the 1920s making structured organizational changes through various frameworks for quality methods including continuous quality improvement and total quality management. When using these tools, it is important to understand systems thinking and the concept of processes within organization. Within these frameworks of improvement, several tools can be used in the analysis of errors. This article introduces a robust tool with a broad analytical view consistent with systems thinking, called CauseMapping (ThinkReliability, Houston, TX, USA), which can be used to systematically analyze the process and the problem at the same time.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, 6700 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030-2343, USA. KGraves@twu.edu
authors.forename: Krisanne
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Graves
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Galley
mesh_terms: D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000009:adverse effects; D015984:Causality; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004348:Drug Labeling; D006493:Heparin / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011340:Problem Solving; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods*; D013597:Systems Analysis; D013850:Thinking; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D006493:Heparin