Attar Jannesar Nobari F * ¹ ( MSc ), Tofighi Sh² ( PhD ), Hafezimoghadam P³ (MD), Maleki MR¹ ( PhD ), Goharinezhad S¹ (MSc)

  ¹ Department of Health Services Management, Faculty of Management &

  Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

  ² Health Management Research Center, Baghiatallah Medical Sciences Research Center, Tehran, Iran

  ³ Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine,

  Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

  Received: 16 Jun 2010, Accepted: 11 Oct 2010

  Abstract

  Introduction: According to classification of the Emergency Department (ED) as a high-risk area in a hospital, failures of six problematic emergency processes in Rasoule Akram Emergency Department were identified, assessed, prioritized, and analyzed in order to improve patients' safety. The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), as one of the risk management techniques, was used for the analysis.

  Methods: This was a descriptive research that quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed some failure modes and effects. FMEA is a team-based, systematic, proactive technique that is used to prevent process and product problems before they occur. For identification of root causes of the analyzed failures, Eindhoven Classification Model (ECM) was used.

  Results: By FMEA, 51 failure modes in the 6 selected emergency processes were identified and assessed. With the 75% reliability, 16 failure modes (with RPN ³ 250) were identified and entitled as "failures with non-acceptable risk", and then root causes of them were classified by ECM.

  Conclusion: According to these result, Proactive FMEA was an efficient and effective method for identifying and prioritizing the improvable points of a running process in a crowded and complex hospital ward, such as an ED.

  Key words: Risk Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) Emergency Process Emergency ward

  Hakim Research Journal 2010 13(3): 165- 176.

  * Corresponding Author: Floor 11, Center of Management Development and Administrative Evolution, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Between Falamak and Zarafshan st, Simaye Iran st, Shahrak Gharb, Tehran, Iran.
Postal Code: 1467664961, Tel: +98- 21- 81452758 , Fax: +98- 21- 88363844, Email:f.jannesar@gmail.com