Reference no: EM133393675
Questions
1. An FMEA will be conducted on postoperative infections. Data is available by surgery type on the frequency, severity, and detectability of these infections. The director of quality improvement expects you to prepare a priority list providing the order in which the various surgeries should be examined to produce the most significant potential benefit for the organization. Severity is ranked from most severe (4) to least severe (1), and detectability is ranked from difficult to detect (4) to easy to detect (1). Calculate a frequency ranking from very high (5) to very low (1) based on the number of infections and cases shown in the following and the RPNs for each type of surgery (Ross, 2014). Which surgery should be examined first? Which surgery should be examined last? What is the maximum possible risk score for this analysis?
2. Instead of the ordinal ranking of frequency, 1 to 5, used in problem 10.1, the director of quality improvement has collected data on the number of cases for each type of surgery and the number of patients that contracted a postoperative infection. The director wants you to recalculate the RPN using the actual incidence rates of infection. Infection severity and detectability are ranked the same as in problem 10.1. Compare your new RPNs with those calculated in 10.1. How does the use of the incidence rate change the improvement worklist? Which surgery should be examined last? What is the maximum possible risk score for this analysis?
3. Assume that in problem 10.2, strict adherence to antibiotic administration one hour before thoracic surgery has reduced the infection rate to 1.0% and severity to 2.0. How did this improvement affect the priority list? Which surgery should be the primary target for improvement?
4. A hospital is setting its quality improvement plan for the upcoming year and will perform an FMEA in one area. The hospital has rated sentinel events for severity, probability, and detectability on the following scale: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low.
Calculate the risk priority number for each type of event. Which sentinel event should be the focus of the hospital's FMEA effort?