Interprofessional Patient Safety and Quality Improvement: Root Cause Analysis

Monday, December 16, 2024, 12:00 AM - Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 12:00 AM

Patient safety events can be events that resulted in an undesired patient outcome or could have potentially resulted in an undesired outcome (near miss).  Performing a team-based root cause analysis is important to identify breakdowns in processes, systems that contributed, and determine how to best prevent future adverse events.  This is done in a non-judgmental interprofessional, collegial manner to improve quality of patient care.

This course will discuss the essential steps in performing a Root Cause Analysis, which is important when evaluating patient safety events in both inpatient and outpatient settings. The course provides information about selecting an effective team to do a Root Cause Analysis, describing a patient safety event, determining contributing factors, identifying root causes, addressing those root causes, and ultimately measuring for improvement.  This course serves as a primer to help you improve patient safety in your clinical setting.

Clinicians will learn the skills to conduct effective Root Cause Analysis while fostering a collaborative approach to identify and address process breakdowns.

Syllabus and instructor information 

Learn more about the Quality and Patient Safety initiative

AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (1.00 hours), General Attendance (1.00 hours), Non-Physician Attendance Certificate (1.00 hours)

1. Identify the steps in a Root Cause Analysis
2. Recognize key guidelines for effective patient safety event analysis with interprofessional teams
3. Identify measures for improvement of identified Root Causes

The University of Florida College of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation

The University of Florida College of Medicine designates this Enduring Material for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

University of Florida College of Medicine adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. All individuals in a position to control a CME activity's content, including faculty, planners, reviewers, and/or others, must disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies (commercial interests). Conflict of interest information for the CME Advisory Committee members can be found on the following website: https://cme.ufl.edu/disclosure. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.