This website will contain the results of a study jointly funded by the Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation and the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and the University of Rochester Department of Emergency Medicine which applies human factors engineering, system safety, and resilience engineering to the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) process commonly utilized in the healthcare/hospital/medical setting.

Abstract: This study will develop a catalog of RCA solution types, and classify these into a hierarchy of anticipated effectiveness based on the knowledge of safety science.  This will result in a tool that can then be used immediately by hospitals to help guide their RCA teams towards more effective and lasting improvements in patient safety and quality. This study will also serve as the basis for a planned multicenter validation study to evaluate the outcomes of applying the tools to RCA team decision-making.   Links: www.MedicalHumanFactors.com www.EmergencyPharmacist.org www.EMPSF.org

Co-Principal Investigators:   Kathryn Kellogg, MPH URMC Year-Out Research Fellow Funded by the UR School of Medicine Rollin J (Terry) Fairbanks, MD, MS Biography and Contact information Collaborators: Vicki Lewis, PhD Shawna Perry, MD Manish N. Shah, MD, MPH Craig R. Sellers, PhD, RN, ANP Robert J. Panzer, MD Robert Wears, MD John Wreathall, ScD Undergraduate Research Asst: Melissa Squires