Quality Management 2017

Reactive versus proactive analysis RCA and HFMEA

RCA

FMEA

Timeframe

retrospective

prospective

Focus

Individual case

Process

JCAHO requirements

All incidents/accidents Annually on a high risk process

Advantages

Asks what has happened and why

Broad impact on the entire process. Does not need an event prior to study. Prevents incidents before they happen

Limitations

Hindhight bias, findings may apply only to one event and may or may not have implications for the entire system.Labour intensive.

Labour intensive